Mr. Wexler,

As a constituent in your district I wanted to tell you that I am deeply embarassed and vividly enraged at the vile comments you have made regarding Governor Sarah Palin. In a recent interview you said that she “aligned herself with a leading anti-Israel voice in American politics.” You have also invoked the name of Adolf Hitler and the phrase “Nazi sympathizer.”

Your statement was not only cruel and misleading, but also incorrect. A statement on John McCain’s Web site says Palin actually worked for the Steve Forbes campaign in 2000. Furthermore, to draw this conclusion from seeing that she wore a Pat Buchanan pin one day and then to speak openly, using such strong language, is both shameful and reflects very negatively on your professionalism and personal integrity.

I understand that you are assisting Senator Obama’s presidential campaign in Florida, but is it worth drawing such negative criticism to yourself simply for the cause of his election. Wouldn’t you rather be putting your best foot forward, instead of in your mouth?

John McCain told the delegates and the crowds ready at the RNC that “This is a time when we have to do away with our party politics and we have to act as Americans”. Senator McCain took a trip down to Mississippi to look at how Mississippi and Louisiana preparations were going. He’s already called on his supporters to not only send money, but to be prepared to respond with work.

Obama on the hand, says that he “could” ask his worshipers supporters to coordinate volunteer efforts if needed. He made some vague reference to a “an email list of two million people” if necessary, and that in the meantime, he and his cult camp would stay out of the area until things have “settled down”.

How insulting is that?!? Here is a man who claims he has concern for his fellow American citizens, and yet the best thing he can come up with it is this base non-committal political rhetoric? An email list? Is he serious? Who’s going to get these emails when half the Gulf Coast is flooded?

Is this the kind of person/administration that you want running America? If there is a threat of war, do you want your commander in chief “laying low” until things “settle down”? We need a leader with decisive action, not one who will cower at the first sign of personal danger!

UPDATE: Looks like the indifference of the liberals is an epidemic!

Look at Michael Moore’s classy comments here: Hurricane during GOP convention is “proof there is a God in Heaven”

Democratic Convention leader claims God is on the side of the Dems

I can’t tell you how many emails I have seen come across that just made me say “huh?”. I’m not talking about emails between friends. I’m talking about emails between professionals. Here are some things to avoid:

1. Sentence fragments. Close them up! Use complete sentences, even if responding to a question from a previous email.
2. Bda sepllign. Nearly every email application has a spell checker. Use Firefox’s built-in one for web-based email. It’s embarassing and makes you look stupid, so just be careful.
3. Bad grammar. Take the time to read your email out loud, or at least in your head. If it sounds funky, it probably is.
4. Address the person correctly. Take a look at this article.
5. Make sure you have a signature with your current and correct contact information. It could be as simple as your name and your email address. If you want people to depend on you, you better be reachable.

These are just some tips for you. I am sure that there are countless other similar posts on the web, so look around and see what others have to say.

NetNanny is one of the most popular Internet filtering and parental control software, and they’ve been around forever. It’s great to see them release their Mac version.

While I still prefer a network-wide solution, like the D-Link SecureSpot, this one is very good and highly recommended.

This is actually a shot of PB 16 with his brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, in Bressanone, Italy July 31.

I’m no different. I have to keep track of information for work I do on clients, for the podcast I host, for my personal life, and for all of the projects in which I am involved. So what keeps me from tearing my hair out in frustration as I try to manage all of this information? Well, today I will recommend three little tools you can use to keep your digital “mind” sane.

1. Evernote.

Evernote is awesome. It’s a free, cross-platform application that lets you store and create notes. What makes Evernote different from all of the other note taking apps out there is that there are so many ways of getting stuff into the app and that your stuff can be accessed just about anywhere. From PC’s to Macs, to the web, and to mobile devices, if there’s something you need to remember, just put it into Evernote and tag it (or not) and you can retrieve it later.

You can send it pictures from your phone or computer and it will scan the picture for text that you can use to search on later. For example, want to catalog something you wrote on a napkin at a restaurant? Simply take a picture, upload it or email it to your Evernote email address, and then in minutes (or even seconds) you can go online or launch your preferred client and you can search for any text in the image and find the image. You can clip articles from websites, you can email or SMS yourself notes, all of which are accessible from your Evernote account.

I find it really useful to create tags for topics I am researching and then clipping portions of websites or files I have downloaded into Evernote. Then I can review the topics from my phone when out and about. Because it’s so easy to get content into Evernote, I never forget an idea.

It’s all free, and you can upgrade and receive more space if you need it. This has become my indispensable tool. Go to www.evernote.com to check it out.

2. Tiddlywiki.

Tiddlywiki is a reusable non-linear personal web notebook. Think of it as a Wiki that stores everything into one, convenient, cross-browser compatible html file. According to their site:

TiddlyWiki is a single html file containing all the characteristics of a wiki
- all the content, all the functionality (including editing, saving,
tagging and searching) and the style sheet. Because it’s a single file,
it’s very portable - you can email it, put it on a web server or share
it via a USB stick.

I use Tiddlywiki in conjunction with Evernote. I use Evernote to act as my “brain” and tiddlywiki as a way to document what I’m working on. For example, I have a Tiddlywiki file that I use to track everything happening with my contract with the Social Security Administration. I store this on my work laptop, and I sync it with my USB drive. I keep track of open support issues, meeting notes, etc. It has saved me hours and hours of research because I keep everything in the one file. I can search across all the “tiddlers” (like notes) and find anything instantly.

Tiddlywikis support themes and expansion of functionality through plugins. There’s no installation, just a single file with some fancy Javascript and DHTML that stores everything locally. I’ve been a happy Tiddler for over a year.

Go to www.tiddlywiki.com for more info. This is free as well and a very useful little tool.

3. eWallet

eWallet is an excellent and secure digital wallet. With it you can store information securely using 256-bit encryption. What do I use it for? To store passwords to websites, account numbers, credit cards, and personal information I might need at any notice. I currently have the version for Windows Mobile and for Windows, but they also have a version of U3 Flash drives and soon they will be releasing their Web version (I’ve signed up for the beta but the list is long).

Right now you can sync between your device and Windows but eventually there will be a way to sync from your phone to the Web version so you can always get to your information. I can’t tell you how many times this has saved me.

eWallet is not free but a great value at $30. Go to www.iliumsoft.com for more info.

http://www.drhorrible.com

At least now the future of marriage in California is up to the citizens, and not the courts!

Also, in related news, Mormon church leaders will ask its California members to join the amendment effort in California. According to AP:

A June 20 letter sent to Mormon congregation bishops and signed by
church president Thomas S. Monson and his two top counselors calls upon
Mormons to donate “means and time” to the ballot measure.

The church will work with a coalition of churches and other
conservative groups that put the California Marriage Protection Act on
the Nov. 4 ballot to assure its passage, the letter states.

“The church’s teachings and position on this moral issue are
unequivocal. Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and
the formation of families is central to the Creator’s plan for His
children,” the four paragraph letter states.

I may have some fundamental issues with the Mormon church, but this is good news that more people are banding together to preserve marriage.

Here is a summary of a recent excerpt from OneMillionMoms:

In
Collierville, Tennessee, recently, an 11 year-old boy named Landon
Howse was walking through the Barnes & Noble bookstore when he
noticed a book lying open on one of the reading area tables. His dad,
Brannon Howse, was right behind him. What Landon saw were graphic
pictures of two men engaged in sex. The book was titled “Ultimate Gay
Sex,” and is one of the many sexually explicit books offered in Barnes
& Noble stores.

Mr. Howse
was obviously stunned and upset at what his young son had just been
exposed to just walking through a general bookstore. When Mr. Howse
complained to the store management that this kind of material should
not be on the bookshelves anywhere in the store, especially a store
children frequent, he was met with indifference. When he complained to
law enforcement that Barnes & Noble was in violation of the
Tennessee “harmful to minors” statute he was given the run around.

Now let’s be clear. I have a problem with Barnes and Noble providing easy access to ANY adult material, not just adult gay material. Here’s the letter that I sent to them:

Dear Chairman Riggio:

I am writing regarding an issue I have with your retail stores. It seems that there are dozens of books that contain graphic and explicit photos that can be accessed by just about anyone, even children and minors. As you know, many of your patrons like to take books off the shelves and browse them at the café or on nearby couches. Unfortunately, these books are often left there and can be picked up by just about anyone. I think your company needs to be more responsible with books of this nature. Either take them off the shelves completely or put them in special restricted areas where children cannot view them.

I would also ask that you be fair and honest in your evaluation of such books. I have seen and heard that books like “Ultimate Gay Sex,” with graphic sexual pictures, have been easily found on your shelves. Is Barnes and Noble going into the gay and pornographic market? I hope not!

Please know that your response to my concern will determine if I will continue to patronize Barnes & Noble.

I shop at Barnes and Noble (alot) and I have seen this before. I never realized how bad it was and after a quick trip there now I see there is a real problem. Please take the time to contact them and tell them they need to be more responsible with their adult materials.

I understand that many books have adult material, even the classics, but those with graphic images need to be put off-limits to minors. Even rag shops that sell hard core pornographic magazines know this. Come on Barnes and Noble, make your stories family friendly!

Mr. Stephen Riggio, CEO sriggio@bn.com
Chris Troia, Chief Information Officer ctroia@bn.com
Mary Ellen Keating, Senior V.P. of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs mkeating@bn.com
Jaime Carey, Chief Merchandising Officer jcarey@bn.com
Carolyn Brown, Director of Corporate Communications e-mail: cbrown@bn.com

I just found this interesting article, which is a small summary of some of the comments made by Christopher Ciccone, Madonna’s brother. Yes, that Madonna. Ordinarily this stuff doesn’t interest me in any way, but he has a sort of captivating style and knack for detail that I couldn’t help but read the entire article on the inner happenings of Madonna’s life. Let me tell you it’s SCARY.

The money, the power, the ego. Wow, even if half of what he says is true, I cannot imagine what really goes in the life of the super rich and powerful. I’ll have to be careful, I guess, when I make a fortune off my latest single: Like a Sinner, Going to Confession for the very first Time. You know you want to sing it, so go ahead.

It turns out that the popular version of Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” is not in fact the original story that was written by Jules Verne in French. The original story is more accurately titled “A Journey to the Interior of the Earth”.

And the difference doesn’t end there. The more popular “Center of the Earth” version has some changes in character names and even some major plot points. Having read the “Center of the Earth” version some years ago, and in anticipation of the new movie being released with the same title, I downloaded the original version, with a more accurate translation, from the MobileRead forums here.

I’m looking forward to seeing the differences and also to seeing this on the big screen!

I’ve actually had my eye on this thing for some time, but it looks like it’s going to be something you can get your hands on pretty soon. I’ve looked high and low for some decent mobile recording gear, especially since my Zoom H4 went the way of the buffalo. Not withstanding its funky appearance, if the sound quality is decent, this would make a great unit for a podcaster who does recording on the scene. I’ll have to keep an eye on the reviews and see how it shapes up.

While I think the world needs more kids, I don’t like the idea of kids having kids outside of marriage. The media wants to cover it as ‘news’, but really all they are doing is glorifying the fact that these young girls are having sex and children out of marriage.

For thousands of years before the twentieth century, young women have been having children at young ages. That’s no big secret. However, those societies were different and operated under strict moral codes that said that young women should be married when they have children. I have no desire to relive the days when woman couldn’t vote and were treated as property of their husbands, but in this case, God I miss the good old days!

And that’s exactly why I am going to wait to buy it. It would be very easy for me to give in to temptation and just go get it. I would be quite happy playing with the new features, uploading pictures, downloading apps, using the GPS…ok I’m getting carried away here and starting to lose my nerve!

But seriously, aren’t we as Christians supposed to be able to control our desires (whether for flesh or tech)? Shouldn’t I have enough will power to simply say, “I’ll wait until my contract is up”? Shouldn’t I be fiscally responsible for what God has given me? The answers to all of these questions is a resounding “YES”, which is exactly while I will say “NO” to the iPhone. Or at least a “later”.

Update 7-11-2008 12:01 PM EST: It now appears that the process of in-store activation has gone completely belly up! Long lines and frustrated consumers greet anyone going to by a phone today. Plus, many of them were sent home to activate because AT&T lost connectivity to the activation servers. I am glad I listened to my conscience…and my wife!

Update 7-11-20008 3:50 PM EST: So if use the iExam application on the iPhone, should I feel better? Check it out at the Curt Jester. Thanks!

From AFA:

“It’s a Frackin’ Cracker!”:

“Can anyone out there score me some consecrated communion
wafers?” Myers continued by saying, “if any of you would be willing to do what
it takes to get me some, or even one, and mail it to me, I’ll show you
sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare. I won’t be tempted to hold it hostage
(no, not even if I have a choice between returning the Eucharist and watching
Bill Donohue kick the pope in the balls, which would apparently be a more
humane act than desecrating a goddamned cracker), but will instead treat it
with profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse, all photographed and
presented here on the web.”

Bill Donahue represents the Catholic League, who first posted comments about a University of Central Florida student who held the Eucharist hostage for days. This tirade of stupidity was an apparent response to Mr. Donahue’s comments.

Here’s the letter I sent:

Mr. Bruininks,

I am not a student at your university, nor do my children attent your institution, but I am appalled at the shocking comments made by Paul Zachary Myers, one of your professors, regarding his plans to desecreate the Eucharist. The Eucharist is an essential part of the Catholic-Christian faith and we Catholics believe it to be the physical manifestation of the presence of Christ. Regardless of his personal opinions, Mr. Myers has no right to so blatantly and shamefully disgrace the millions of Catholics around the world through the language on his university-operated blog.

If he had chosen to do this on his own personal blog, then we could excuse his lunatic ravings as a mere expression of a deluded and uneducated opinion. However, since the post was made on a blog maintained by the University of Minnesota Morris, we can only assume that his opinion is one which matches that of the administration of the university, mainly, yourself and the other faculty.

I ask that you take these steps:

1. Censure Mr. Myers
2. Delete the post from the blog
3. Demand that Mr. Myers post an apology
4. Make an official statement separating your institution from the opinion of Mr. Myers

I hope that you will take action on this matter and restore the good name of the faculty of the University of Minnesota Morris.

UPDATE: I have since learned that the blog is NOT operated by the university, but instead merely linked to it. I have sent a revised letter to the President stating that if the university removes the link from their site or if they provide a clear disclaimer that they are not associated with Mr. Myers’ ramblings, then no apology from the University or Mr. Myers is necessary, though one would be appreciated, considering the incrudelity he showed in the vulgarity of his comments.

UPDATE: The University has taken off the link from their site. In this matter, Mr. Meyers’ behaviour has been proven folly and the matter is closed.

Now that the price of gas has skyrocketed, I think it’s time to review the age-old pastime of walking. I’ll give you an example from our own life.

Last night we decided to walk to Walgreens to pick up some…personal items, shall we say.

So we decide to make an evening out of it. First, I walked with my son and wife to Dairy Queen for some cold, smooth ice cream, where we had a nice chat about something that I can’t remember and then we walked from Dairy Queen to Walgreens for the other stuff. Then we walked back, weaving through rush hour traffic, and ended the night by looking up through the telescope to watch the moon.

What made this little adventure so nice was that it was no adventure at all. Here we were, doing the most mundane of things, like eating ice cream and picking up toilet paper (yes, toilet paper, now you have it), and it was some of the best family bonding time we’ve had in a while. Why?

1. We spent over an hour together without a single electronic gadget. When was the last time the average family could say that?

2. Our conversations were about nothing significant. We reviewed our vacation and played walking games (like “red light, green light”). We sang songs from our son’s favorite TV show, The Backyardigans. We tested his reading ability by picking out words on signs. We talked about cars. Families need lots of insignificant talk, not just morsels of meaningful dialogue. When it comes to family, quantity is better.

3. We sweated together. That may sound gross, but families who toil together (though a walk can hardly be considered work) stay together. That’s my theory. Our walk was a shared experience. Each of had to look out for cars, we had to tell each other when it was safe to cross. We all saw the same ducks swimming across the canal. There’s a certain simple beauty in walking up to your doorstep and seeing the same sweaty face on that of your family’s.

If we were to write a movie in the fashion of Indiana Jones (the old ones, at least) about our family adventures, they would have titles like “The Plumey Family and the Curse of the Broken Walk Signal” or “The Plumey Family: Raiders of the Dairy Queen Bathroom”.

Don’t pass up the simple pleasure of spending what may seem to be meaningless time with your family. No matter what age your kids or your parents, these mundane adventures will be lasting memories in your family for years to come and you will be drawn closer in ways you never expected.

I can’t tell you how many fathers I have met in the course of my travels that actively go to strip clubs, with or without their spouse’s awareness. For some it’s just a distraction, but for others it’s an addiction. Either way, husbands and fathers who go to strip clubs are putting into jeopardy their marriages and their families.

So it appears that the downturn in the US economy is also impacting strip clubs, at least here in South Florida where I live. This is from the Sun Sentinel:

Angelina Spencer is national executive director of the Association of
Club Executives, a group that represents adult entertainment clubs. She
says she fields calls every day from strip club owners around the
country feeling the pinch of a bad economy.

Spencer says entertainment is a luxury item and “one of the first things people give up.”

Fathers and husbands spending less time at strip clubs is a good thing, even if the reasons for their absence have more to do with their wallet than their ideas of sexuality and respect for their wives.

On the flip side, a down economy also means that there are more women who are willing to try strip teasing as a form of income, which is why we should be helping groups like XXXChurch to reach out to men and women in the adult entertainment industry.

Not to turn this post into a discussion of this organization, but despite their lack of orthodox methodologies and teachings, they really are doing something really interesting to reach out to those afflicted by addictions to pornography and the “adult entertainment” lifestyle.

Over the next few posts I will focus on opportunities that can be gained to help families to spend more time together and grow stronger during an economic slow down. I’ll also focus on external things happening outside the family that are impacted by a sagging economy that can turn out to improving family values within the United States.

Stay tuned!

A great, fast read. I needed something to distract from me David Brinn’s Brightness Reef, which I can’t quite get into, and this did the job perfectly. The characters in this witty little mystery were fantastic, though a little one dimensional. I think she did a great job developing the characters despite a relatively small amount of pages. The mystery itself is fairly believable, though you do have to have a sense for WW1 British politics to take full advantage of it.

Pick this one up (for free online in many locations) for a fun, light read with some witty twists along the way.

You can get it free at :

Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1155

Manybooks.net (in a bunch of formats, many for eReader devices):
http://manybooks.net/titles/christieetext98secad10.html

UPDATE: After almost two weeks slogging through it, Brightness Reef is picking up steam. I had purchased City of Ember in an attempt to read something light, but Brightness Reef is having some nice twists to keep me interested.

A recent graduate who had a baby during her freshman year told Time she knows why the girls wanted to get pregnant.

“They’re
so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally,”
Amanda Ireland, 18, said. “I try to explain it’s hard to feel loved
when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m.”

Wow this is really interesting. So a bunch of teenagers actually wanted to get parent of out wedlock to “feel loved unconditionally”. Talk about candidates for hearing PJPII’s Theology of the Body!

Some of the lowlights here:

1. They used homeless men to impregnate them
2. They didn’t feel “loved” by anyone else in their life
3. School officials are allowed and encouraged to give contraception to students.

Just more evidence that our teens need to hear the truth about their bodies, their God, and the love he has for them.

This is exactly the kind of thing that the liberals want, to completely run the country. Now they want to own the nation’s oil refineries. Outside of the Army can you think of a SINGLE government organization that does its job well? Hmm…Medicare, SSA, Department of Justice, TSA? Now they want to control the supply of oil and thus the economy?

This is nothing but a power move. Nothing good can come it? Where in the Constitution does it say anything about the government owning our energy resources? IT DOESN’T! This government we have, run by liberal democrats, wants to control every aspect of our lives. Bring on socialism, because we’re not far away!

This is all well and good, but doesn’t come close to solving the problem. Consider USENET, which is a global network of news servers. Many ISP’s have a scaled-down version of newsgroup servers, but that does not stop a person from joining a private news server where there is absolutely no control over the content.

Now, many of the suppliers of child porn (and any kind of porn) use these newsgroups as a way to promote their own websites. Otherwise, most of the content on these servers is uploaded by users, not companies.

Furthermore, these files stored on these servers are encoded, so even if you were to shut down certain newsgroups, all the suppliers (and consumers) have to do is to rename their group and let everyone know.

In a free society, there is no way to control this, and there will never be a solution to this problem. Parents need to raise children who understand the value of purity. Parents need to know the friends and parents of their children to ensure that their peers are those who have similar values. Parents need to lock down their computers and network connections to prevent access to this content. Parents need to instill in their children a love of God, their bodies, and God’s plan for them.

Well, actually, there is a solution to this problem: parents!

My letter to Senator Mel Martinez (FL)

Thank you for contacting me regarding America’s Climate Security Act. I appreciate hearing  from you and would like to take this opportunity to respond to your concerns.

On October 18, 2007, Senator Lieberman introduced America’s Climate Security Act of 2007 (S. 2191). This bill would create an absolute cap on total emissions from all covered entities including the electric power,
transportation, industry, and commercial sectors with the goal of reducing
greenhouse gases. This cap would be lowered over time through 2050, and a market would be created to sell and trade emission allowances. On December 5, 2007, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works reported out a revised version of S. 2191, and further action is expected on the legislation in the 110th Congress.

I believe that the threat of climate change is real, and I am working with my
colleagues in the Senate to regulate and reduce greenhouse emissions. As we consider climate change legislation, we need to ensure that the laws we pass will in fact reduce carbon emissions and lessen the threat of catastrophic climate change. Additionally, we need to consider and attempt to mitigate any negative effects the new laws would have on our economy, energy prices, and Americans living on fixed incomes.

The United States cannot solve this problem alone, and similar efforts in China and India are critical to combating this threat. However, our country can provide needed leadership and technological innovation for the international community, and, as one of the world’s largest energy consumers, it is time for the United States to accept this responsibility. The choices we make now in dealing with climate change may be some of the most significant environmental and economic decisions of our generation. I assure you that I am committed to passing legislation to counter the threat posed by global climate change, and I will keep your thoughts in mind as the Senate considers S. 2191 or similar legislation.

I think I am going to load up S. 2191 and take a look at these carbon emission allowances. I’ll report my findings later tommorow.

My Original Fax:

RE: Support H.J. RES. 89!

The American people want to protect marriage from activist judges!

I am very disappointed that the Democratic Party has endorsed homosexual marriage. I
urge you to co-sponsor H.J. RES. 89, the Marriage Protection Amendment of 2008,
which would make marriage legal only between a man and a woman. Our families and children need this constitutional amendment to protect marriage.

I realize that there are some minority factions of our country that desire the
status of marriage between same-sex couples. However, it is the OVERWHELMING
opinion of Americans that marriage is between a man and a woman. Do not bow to
the special interests of a minority. This is NOT a civil rights issue, but
rather one of choice. Please side with the MAJORITY of Americans and co-sponsor
this bill.

Here is the reply I got via email:

Dear Mr. Plumey:

Thank you for expressing your thoughts about the proposed constitutional
amendment that would define marriage on a federal level, H.J. Res. 89 in this
Congress.

This amendment has been debated numerous times in the past few years. As you may know, on June 7, 2006, the Senate soundly rejected the amendment in a procedural vote, which received only 49 of the 60 votes needed to end debate on the issue. Sixty-seven votes would have been necessary to approve the constitutional amendment. On July 18, 2006, the House then voted on this amendment (H.J.Res. 88) in spite of the Senate’s prior defeat of the measure.

H.J.Res. 88 failed to receive the requisite two-thirds majority by a vote of
236 to 187. The House had already gone on record this session opposing such a proposal; on September 30, 2005 the House voted on H.J.Res. 106, a prior version of the marriage amendment. As with H.J.Res. 88, H.J. Res 106 failed, receiving 227 votes, nearly 50 fewer than needed.

Article IV, Section 1 of the Constitution states,

“Full faith and credit shall
be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state.” HOWEVER, in 1996, 104th Congress passed the   “Defense of Marriage Act,” which modifies Article IV, Section 1 such     that no state is required to recognize the same sex marriages of any other state. The Defense of Marriage Act became Public Law 104-199 and currently stands under Chapter 115 of title 28 in US Code.

For your reference, I have included the most relevant portion of the act below:

Sec. 1738C. Certain acts, records, and proceedings and the effect thereof

“No State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian
tribe, shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial
proceeding of any other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a
relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage
under the laws of such other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right
or claim arising from such relationship.”

This provision has allowed each state to decide for its citizens how to define marriage and does not require any other state to recognize its marital unions.

On an issue that is so divisive for America and since each state is able to make this determination based on the will of the state, I do not see a need to make a change at the present time.

Rest assured that I will continue to monitor this important issue. Thank you
again for taking the time to write. Please feel free to contact me anytime
if I may be of help to you.

Interesting, and while I would normally agree with this position, the fact is that the people who are voting in these states are not having their voices heard. Case in point: the recent decision by the California Supreme Court to overrule the majority of the people who want to keep marriage between a man and a woman.

Here’s my followup response:

RE: Your email response to my fax inquiry re: Support H.J. RES. 89!

Thank you for the prompt and courteous reply to my inquiry regarding this proposed
amendment. I understand that under The Defense of Marriage Act no state is
required to give effect to another’s state’s definition of marriage. However, I
feel that there is one very important aspect that is not being discussed: a
federal amendment to the Constitution is the only way to guarantee and protect
the status of marriage so that activist judges cannot overrule the desires of
the voters. The courts in many states want to force this lifestyle on voters and citizens who do not want it. Take, for example, the recent actions of the California Supreme Court.

Nothing short of a Constitutional amendment can protect the will of the people, which
throughout the entire United States, is a positive affirmation of the
sanctity of marriage between a man and woman.

Your responsibility as a representative of the citizens of South Florida is to ensure that our opinions are not overruled by activist judges who have their own agenda, outside of the scope of the will of the people.

Furthermore, we must also consider the considerable and unnecessary misuse of millions of dollars in litigation it will cost states to have to continually defend the will of the people.

This amendment is the right choice for America because it will protect the right of every citizen to have a say in the way our country is run.

Again, I implore you to support H.J. RES. 89. Supporting this amendment is to support the
will of the people. Thank you for listening.

1. Obviously, a new iPhone, with 3G capabilities and some new apps.
2. A developer-centric desktop, something a little bigger than the Mini, but small and powerful.
3. Some changes to the MacBook Pro line. Perhaps they will start offering solid state disks on the MacBook Pro.
4. More iTunes-related stuff, perhaps new services or additional content.

Those are my modest predictions. I would love to see a Mac tablet of some kind, but I doubt it will happen. I hope you all have fun keeping tabs on the flood of information from WWDC.

Here’s a quick summary of why this legislature is a bad idea, courtesy of GOPUSA:

This legislation will create an unprecedented tax on industry that will profoundly change every area of the American economy.

Under
a system of cap and trade the government would set a limit on emissions
that declines every year. The goal of Warner-Lieberman is to return to
2005 levels by 2012, and to further reduce that number by 30% by 2030.
Companies affected will be awarded emission credits, which can be
bought, sold and traded to other companies.

Cap and trade is an indirect tax that will hamper the economy and will be passed on to consumers through price increases.

This
new tax gives politicians unprecedented control over business with the
ability to favor one group over others. It will create an opportunity
for corruption and fraud to run rampant.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce put together a great chart
on the regulatory apparatus that would be needed to implement the
economy-killing Lieberman-Warner global warming legislation. Not only
would this be a massive expansion of government, but it would also have
a devastating impact on states.

I’ll try and cover the points, if and when this ever comes up again. It’s not likely to be approved, at least not in this Congress. But since both McCain and Obama have made it a priority to help “clean up the environment’, I’m sure this thing will rear its ugly head again in the near future.

According to USA TODAY:

Body-scanning machines that show images of
people underneath their clothing are being installed in 10 of the
nation’s busiest airports in one of the biggest public uses of security
devices that reveal intimate body parts.

The Transportation
Security Administration (TSA) recently started using body scans on
randomly chosen passengers in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Denver,
Albuquerque and at New York’s Kennedy airport.

I travel frequently through BWI (Baltimore) and I’ve seen the machines. Man they are scary looking! So I suppose I’ll eventually be subject to one of these. I don’t really care, as long as the machines are not saving the image and tying it to me personally, and as long as they don’t end up on the internet. I’m already self-conscious about my love handles, there’s no need to spread that kind of love around.

• I run a backup of my three systems up to JungleDisk
• I upload at least 2 GB a week of pictures to my Smugmug account
• During podcast season, I upload 120 MB+  of audio, images, etc. (for the final podcast) and 600MB for a backup of the lossless AAC file.

Will Comcast target me and list me as a black-list user? I don’t know but it makes me worry. Oi.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Infrastructure/Comcast-Tests-User-Throttling/

Comcast claims only a handful of users are clogging its broadband network and slowing it down for the vast majority of users.

In testing beginning in three markets June 6, Comcast plans to compile a blacklist of its heaviest users who may find their Internet speeds
slowed during peak network hours, regardless of the software used to
download files. Comcast insists most users will not be affected by the
approach.

I prefer Time-Warner’s tiered approach where heavey users are charged somewhere in the order of $1-2 US a GB for going over their alloted amount.

What do you think? Are you going to be black-listed?

The hoopla here is that a lesbian couple was asked to stop kissing because it made another fan uncomfortable. I can sympathize with the fan because I’ve seen from experience that lesbian and gay couples often have displays of affection that are, shall we say, a little more intense than the average straight couple.

Sibrina Guerrero complained that there was another couple there making out just a few rows up front. She claims she was singled out because of her sexual orientation. I wasn’t there, of course, but I’m sure it must have been one heck of a smooch fest for it to make another fan uncomfortable.

The gay and lesbian lifestyle is carnivorous in its approach to sexuality. I mean think about it, their sole reason for claiming their minority status is the fact that they have a different sexual drive than others. Plus, in this case specifically, it seems like Guerrero may just be a little more than enthusiastic about her sexuality:

Since the incident, Guerrero’s job and her
past have come under scrutiny. She works at a bar known for scantily
clad women and was a contestant on the MTV reality show “A Shot at Love
With Tila Tequila,” in which women and men compete for the affection of
a bisexual Internet celebrity.

Face the facts, the lives of gay and lesbian couples are diven by sex, why should we expect them to act prudish in public? It seems like it’s part of the coat of arms for the GBLT movement that you need to come under public scrutiny at some point in your life. Why is every GBL-or-T person I’ve ever met so obsessed with sex?

Probably not, but I think it’s a smart move for the company to position itself inside one of the government’s official think tanks. It will be interesting to hear what kind of work they will be working on.

Senator Martinez,

I just viewed your speech to the Senate on how the Congress leadership should handle the rising cost of energy. I think your points were right on and I wanted to show you my support of your work.

In particular, the use of American innovation and technology, I think, will ultimately lead us out of this issue. A diminished, or completely removed, dependency on foreign fuel sources will do wonders for our economy and the political status of America throughout the world and the Middle East region.

I look forward to hearing more from you about this subject and I hope to see you represent Florida’s interest in the rapidly growing field of Cellulosic Ethanol as well as in the use of other bio waste in the production of energy.

I would also encourage you to take the time to explore the use of advanced photovoltaic surfaces that can be used on roads and highways to generate electricity from the Sun and heat for which Florida is famous.

Thank you for your work,

Senator Martinez On Rising Energy Costs

I know she’s in it for the money, but can Beyoncé really be that ignorant of the damage she’s causing to young girls?

Check out the article, you’ll see what I mean:

http://www.parentdish.com/2008/05/12/beyonce-sexing-up-childrens-clothing/

But if there are more reviews like this one, then I might have to disappoint him and tell him he has to wait until he gets older.

As a parent, I like to keep out on all this stuff because you never know what kinds of weird stuff kids in the future will be into.

WASHINGTON — NASA has scheduled a media teleconference Wednesday, May 14, at 1 p.m. EDT, to announce the discovery of an object in our Galaxy astronomers have been hunting for more than 50 years. This finding was made by combining data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory with ground-based observations.

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/may/HQ_M08089_Chandra_Advisory.html

Technorati Tags: geek, science, space, NASA

What is ENDA? ENDA is the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that is being moved through Congress. So it sounds like a nice thing, right? Isn’t it a good thing that there isn’t any discrimination in the work place? Yes, it is, but it’s already been done. There’s already a law that prevents that. In fact there are several laws that prevent employers (most of them, anyway) from discriminating in the workplace based on an employee’s race, nationality, color, or creed. Check out http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/qanda.html

So why do we need another one? Well the liberals think that people should not be discriminated againt based on their sexual orientatation and preferences.

Why is this bad?

According to the American Family Association:

It [ENDA] would grant special consideration on the basis of “sexual orientation” that would not be extended to other employees in the workplace.

ENDA violates employers’ and employees’ Constitutional freedoms of religion, speech and association. The proposed legislation would prohibit employers from taking their deeply held beliefs into account when making personnel decisions. This would pose an unprecedented intrusion by the federal government into people’s lives.

ENDA would approvingly bring private behavior considered immoral by many into the public square. By declaring that all sexual preferences are equally valid, ENDA would change national policy supporting marriage and family.

It’s obvious that the real agenda behind the innocuously named Employment Non-Discrimination Act is a push to enshrine homosexuality in national policy. This dangerous legislation would dramatically expand the government’s reach into your work place and create unnecessary work-place conflicts and lawsuits. ENDA is a sweeping employer mandate to create special new legal protections based on “sexual orientation” (or “perceptions”).

Although religious organizations are exempt, I have three main issues with the legilslation:

1. It promotes an unhealthy lifestyle. The gay and lesbian lifestyle should not be a basis for discrimination. Perhaps there is a good reason why most of America disproves of the gay lifestyle? Perhaps they should pass a law that an employer can’t discriminate on the basis of other lifestyle choices? Hm…can you be fired from a meat plant if you’re a vegetarian?

2. It promotes more infringement of the government into the private sector. Another law, with more lawyers looking for cash, more lawsuits, more fees, more forms, more of everything.

3. It will open the door to more discussion and use of sex in workplace politics. If people aren’t talking about sexual orientation in the worklace, there will be few issues related to it. In short, we don’t need this act.

From my AFA-generated letter to my Florida Sentators:

The case has not been made that systemic and widespread discrimination justifies a new legally protected class. Don’t you think that you have a right to work without being subjected to sexual expressions, political agendas and other non-work related conduct? For example, as employers prepare to comply with the legislation and guard against frivolous claims, employees will be trained to be more “sensitive” to gay and lesbian co-workers and pressured to embrace and promote all values, even those that violate their own religious or personal convictions.