:: Running from the Thought Police ::

:: Saturday, May 31, 2003 ::

As a general editorial on NASA and the Columbia break-up, I have to say that I'm baffled at all this bitching about NASA not doing all it should to insure safety. All throughout the 1990s people were complaining about how much money NASA spent on missions and not giving NASA the budgets it requested. That the lack of funds caused a reduction in safety is regrettable, but shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. Besides, the shuttle fleet's old. Anyone with a scientific bent has known this for the past 5 years, at least. Yet before the Columbia tragedy, Congress cut funding for development of a next-gen shuttle after the first test of the new engine system failed, apparently forgetting the number of tests it took to develop the original rocket engine in the first place. Something like the Columbia tragedy was bound to happen, and NASA definitely does not carry all the blame. Over something so scientific, I'm appalled at the amount of stupidity which is being applied to the subject.

:: The Squire 1:11 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

Is it just me, or is it a bit windy around here?

:: The Squire 12:55 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

According to a story over at The Register, most bloggers are teenaged girls. This not only comes as no surprize to me (knowing that age group's penchant for both diary-keeping and gossip-mongering) it actually makes sense. I assure you, dear reader, that I am quite male, just in case you were worried.

:: The Squire 12:51 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

I love my computer.... I've had it for a year and I've never gotten the blue screen of death. Ever.

:: The Squire 12:45 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

Paul Krugman takes a break from telling us about the horrors of a Liquidity Trap to say some words of his own on the WMD issue. A must-read.

:: The Squire 12:36 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

Atrios links to an article on the farce that was Georgia's implementation of touch-screen polling. Now, for those public officials who are too stupid to learn anything from that, here's how a proper touch-screen system should work.

1. One contest per screen, voter can flip back and forth between races before hitting the submit key.
2. After submiting the vote, there is a confirmation screen showing all the voter's choices. The voter is then able to affirm said choices or to go back and change them.
3. The actual vote IS NOT KEPT BY THE MACHINE ITSELF. Instead, the voter recieves a receipt(which is the actual ballot), listing all their choices in plainly visible text. If it does not match, the ballot is shredded and the voter votes again.
4. Voter turns receipt over to polling judge. Polling judge then runs the ballot though a separate counting machine, preferably made by a different company than the voting machine. This generates the actual count for the polling place. The count is recorded at a number of times during the day, so as to minimize the damage of the counting machine breaking down.
5. Each ballot is saved and treated as a normal ballot in the event of a recount.

With such a system, there is a paper trail and, if machine tampering is suspected, a hand recount is possible.

:: The Squire 12:30 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

Hesiod's bitching about the non-failure of the intelligence community over the WMDs. Gee, I've heard that before...

:: The Squire 11:36 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Dr. Josh has a wonderful rant about the White House's current spin on the WMD issue. Go read it. Now.

:: The Squire 11:17 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Emma over at Late Night Thoughts uses a recent survey on how people rank the Presidents to attack the admittedly deficient education culture of this country. I applaud both her justified attack and her connections of these two valid points.

:: The Squire 6:26 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Dear Lord! The Malaysian Government is telling the RIAA the truth; namely, that the RIAA has a rectal-cranial inversion.

:: The Squire 6:09 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

God Bless the First Amendment. The White House better not waste taxpayer money over this like it's done previously. (It's late, I don't feel like digging up a link: I'm having enough trouble typing coherently.) Link thanks to TBogg.

:: The Squire 1:31 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

I just finished reading David Brock's Blinded by the Right and I recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about the culture of partisan hate which led up to the Clinton Impeachment. I also anticipate that it will have been a good primer for Sid's The Clinton Wars. And my girlfriend still doesn't understand why I like reading political nonfiction.

:: The Squire 12:49 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

I still don't understand why Blogspot insists on putting ads for conservative sites on my blog. It makes no sense.

:: The Squire 12:44 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

More quality reporting from The Onion. If they're predicting this now, be very afraid for the next couple years - the stuff they did at the beginning of the Bush Administration's tenure is scary if you go read it now. In light of that, this should freak you out.

:: The Squire 12:25 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

I'm happy being male, and apparently Kos is too.

:: The Squire 12:13 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

While we're on the topic, here are some people cruising for Darwins of their own. Helmet laws are for your own safety, morons.

:: The Squire 11:39 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

This one isn't good enough for a Darwin but as it's local I'll post it here. I've been to Starved Rock a couple times, as well as to Mississippi Palisades, which both feature limestone cliffs, which are often sheer and very unstable when they're being undercut by a river. One of either park's big rules is that you stay on the paths. All the observation points have platforms with railings - no platform, you don't go there, period. The fact that this teen died disobeying the rules is the fault of his own stupidity, nothing more.

:: The Squire 11:34 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Here's a strategy that'd screw up some morons: tell the right wingers that we're losing the "Diplomacy Gap." China and Russia telling N. Korea to back down while we go scare-mongering in Iran is simply not tolerable. The US should be the leader in bringing about world peace through negotiations!

:: The Squire 11:24 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

If you didn't believe that Bush was a hard right-winger, that his administration was filled with more of the same, and that they wanted tax cuts for the rich so they could gut programs and screw everyone else, go read Paul Krugman's column. If you still don't believe it, you're a moron, plain and simple.

:: The Squire 11:04 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

The wonders of Mozilla...

All I do is type in "j" and it brings up Brad Delong's Semi-Daily Journal. Now, This is smart computing.

:: The Squire 10:53 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Seriously, Blogspot needs to double its server resources. These load times are entirely too long.

:: The Squire 10:46 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Hesiod has a great post on the Greens in 04 as well as the underhanded GOP.

:: The Squire 10:36 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Kos gives us an extended update on whether or not Gen. Wesley Clark can be expected to run in the primaries for the Democratic ticket. Clark, as most know, is Kos' favorite pick for the nomination - soundly beating Bush on both the National Security and Domestic fronts. Kos' major point is that Clark will probably run if there is a loud enough call to action, and Kos is doing his part by sounding the horn.

:: The Squire 10:33 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

The amazing thing about spam is its unifying quality: EVERYBODY hates it, especially when large corporations lose productivity. And, oh yeah, when the avg. Joe can't find jack in his inbox, but who cares about him?

:: The Squire 5:08 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Sometimes I wish that more Catholics were like these nuns.

:: The Squire 4:59 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

I went to see The Matrix Reloaded last night. It's pretty good, but don't take the kiddies - that PG-13 is there for a REASON.

:: The Squire 4:54 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Maybe I just never noticed it when I lived in the dorms and had my internet connection come through a LAN, but ever since I've gotten home Blogspot's been taking forever to load any of their blogs, including my own.

:: The Squire 4:42 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

The SCLM (So Called Liberal Media, for those not used to such abbreviations) wants us to believe that the reason why we're not finding any WMDs in Iraq as a major intelligence failure. This, of course, makes no sense, seeing as how the CIA testified to Congress that they had no evidence of any such weapons. It was Dubya and his bunch of morons who kept saying that there had to be craploads of WMDs. Will the media go after the administration for it's bald-faced lies? Of course not. Dr. Josh has a much longer post on the subject.

:: The Squire 4:20 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

RonK over at Daily Kos continues to educate us on the evils of having a $10 Trillion swing in the national debt.

:: The Squire 4:14 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

The only reason I know that it's a holiday today is because my dad's home from work.

:: The Squire 4:09 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

I'm sure this has happened before...

Real News hit Doonesbury before it hit CNN Online.

:: The Squire 1:03 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

"Today, Atrios Jr. Says...."

Yeah, he's having a hissy-fit over people linking to Atrios instead of providing real content. I'd be offended, but Atrios isn't the only one I do that to - I do that to all my favorite blogs. It's how I show I care. And I DO some of my own blogging - it's just that I'm home from skool right now. Being 100+ miles away takes most of my common antagonists at skool - bad food, people in my hall being rather stupid, the complexities of having a romantic relationship while in college, bicycle path travesties, the chief, or any other of a large list of provocations - and while I could write about all of them here in suburban hell, it just wouldn't be the same, so I won't. Instead, I'll just bide my time, create an archive for the site, and wait until I can go back to UIUC.

:: The Squire 12:28 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

Dr. Josh has more damning evidence about Tom Delay's involvement with the Texas Killer D's. I wonder who's set up to run the betting on how long it will take the national media to pick up on this story.

:: The Squire 5:34 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Paul Krugman's talks about his precious liquidity trap. Now most of his recent columns make more sense.

:: The Squire 5:32 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Really local intrest story. I didn't even know the thing existed, and I've lived around here all my life. Good to see that someone asked the Scouts to help, though.

:: The Squire 4:45 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

This is just sad. It was bad when it was happening in California, but now it's occuring here too. We're not even at war and we've got the stupid Alien and Sedition Acts back in place. Where are the Republicans and Libertarians to bitch about how government should stay out of people's lives? Oh, wait, I remember, they're the morons who pass such stupid legislation.

:: The Squire 4:38 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

The Illinois House has passed some major death-penalty reforms. Great, but we're still behind everyone else in the world in terms of banning it completely. At least Blagojevich (no I didn't have to look that up to spell it) is continuing the moratorium.

:: The Squire 4:34 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Brad Delong's kids have an interesting culinary theory.

:: The Squire 4:22 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

An interesting view of liberalism versus conservatism. Brad Delong has a digest version for those of you with short attention spans.

:: The Squire 4:12 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

I Wonder....

If anyone more financially capable than I has taken the time to total up the likely (i.e. w/o sunset provision) size of both Shrub tax cuts.

:: The Squire 3:58 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Kos today does a good job of explaining the magnitude of the fiscal cluster-fuck the Bush Administration has brought about.

:: The Squire 3:55 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Alumnus wanted someone to bomb his Alma Mater.

My, My, My.

:: The Squire 3:52 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Atrios now has a Bouncing Brat.

:: The Squire 3:46 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

One of the reasons I don't like being home: My allergies are ten times worse at home then they are at UIUC.

:: The Squire 3:40 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Gen. Tommy Franks is retiring. I'll bet Atrios, Kos, Hesiod, and Dr. Josh will all have their own spin on it, but my bet is that he got pissed off at Rumsfeld et. al. honing in on his turf and this was the first opportunity he had to get out.

:: The Squire 1:49 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

As I'm the only one home I checked the answering machine. While I was off at college it appears that telemarketers are actually leaving messages on machines now with "special offers." Though I applaud the fact that the telemarketing companies are hiring real people in this time of economic downturn, it's still really annoying to have advertisements on an answering machine.

:: The Squire 1:37 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

David Appell has just discovered a second rule of journalism.

:: The Squire 1:31 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

As a biology student, I applaud this man's creative removal of his defective genes from the gene pool. I really do hope he gets the darwin.

:: The Squire 12:35 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

This story is an excellent example of simple molecular biology being so dumbed down as to make it incorrect.

:: The Squire 12:01 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

Considering that I'm a LIBERAL, I wonder why one of the most common ads above my blog is for a CONSERVATIVE web site (I won't give them the benefit of the link).

:: The Squire 11:56 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

DuPuage County Board is "expressing concern" (free registration required) over the O'Hare expansion legislation they previously supported. It seems to me that they're covering their asses for the next election. These people need to quit their whining. O'Hare NEEDS to be expanded. Hell, it's not really being expanded they're just re-aligning the runways to make them more efficient.

:: The Squire 11:38 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Go read the current episode of BOFH. Such mastery I can only dream of aspiring to.

:: The Squire 11:17 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

While I myself went to a mostly upper-class high school, the type of stuff that went on at Glenbrook North simply should not be tolerated and I applaud the State Attorney's office for pressing charges against two of the adults who enabled it to happen. I'm sure that a few more charges could be pressed against other parents as well.

:: The Squire 11:09 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Dubya's Alma Mater went BOOM. It seems as if someone's trying to make a statement - hopefully it's not some misguided idiot on the left, as that'd do untold damage to the cause. Apparently some people were worried about whether the Shrub Twins were near the blast - I don't understand why, it's not like they spend their time actually studying...

:: The Squire 10:57 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Hello, Comcast? Will my folks get a cable modem before I move out for good? I know you're gonna do it next year. Problem is, it's been "Next Year" since I was a HS freshman. I'm a sophomore in college now. Understand why I'm ticked? And you still aren't gonna put it in anytime soon? Tell me why I shouldn't find some creative way to report you assholes to the Better Business Bureau.

:: The Squire 2:19 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Europeans must read this and wonder if we Americans have minds.

:: The Squire 2:05 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

It's a statement of how poorly our Homeland Security Dept. is being run that this seems plausible.

:: The Squire 2:01 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

I wish more people showed such ambition.

(thanks to Dave Barry)

:: The Squire 1:56 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Brad Delong is just now realizing that his brain really doesn't belong to him. I've known that mine doesn't belong to me for years - it just does what I tell it because it's kinda attached to me.

:: The Squire 1:39 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Atrios points us towards an article detailing the illegal shenanigans committed by the Texas Dept. of Public Safety and their current coverup of it.

:: The Squire 1:37 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Apparently someone got fired via a text message. Am I the only one who can see the Dilbert strip for this coming?

:: The Squire 10:22 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

So CNN(by parroting the AP) is reporting that someone wants to reclassify chimpanzees under the genus Homo. Now, one of the few things I learned in IB 150 this past semester is that the current system of taxonomy is completely whacked and is generally useless. So, does it really matter if chimps are in genus Pan or genus Homo? Not really, so why bother changing it?

:: The Squire 10:18 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

THINGS WHICH DON'T MAKE SENSE: Let's save the forests from fires by cutting them down!

:: The Squire 10:10 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

I'm wondering when all these blogs that I've linked to will start listing me in the trackbacks.

:: The Squire 10:07 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Michael Moore has been making fun of the color-coded terror scheme for some time. Now Kos shows us the reason why.

:: The Squire 9:46 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

There's nothing in the world quite like clean underwear.

:: The Squire 9:42 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

For some reason, when I put in the proper Baldur's Gate II CD into my new DVD-ROM drive, the computer fails to find it and continue with the game. It's really aggrivating.

:: The Squire 9:32 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Brad Delong has an interesting link on his site about evolutionary trends.

:: The Squire 9:27 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Yippee! The Ari the Liar is leaving!

:: The Squire 9:08 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

My computer is up and running, and I have a brand-new DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive to replace my old DVD-ROM drive (which was a bit banged up after the fall). However, it won't be hooked back up to the net until I get back to skool in the fall.

:: The Squire 9:03 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

While I was clearing out of my dorm room yesterday my computer had a mishap. It fell sideways off my desk, three feet down, and onto the floor. The side and front of the plastic casing is damaged, and we're hoping that it absorbed all the energy of the fall. My front two USB ports were also damaged, apparently as the front casing came off. I have two more (all four were USB 1.1) but they're in the back, less accessible for such things like plugging in digital cameras. Today's project will be assessing the damage to the computer. I can only hope that it boots and that the hard drive is still intact.

:: The Squire 12:21 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

A Second Go at the Messed-Up Post: RonK, subbing for Kos, has a list of 28 things that you can't say on television. Man, I gave up the Dirty Seven for Lent, there's no way in hell I'm giving up all those.

:: The Squire 9:57 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Ok, Blogger just did something really stupid and I'm not sure how to fix it. Maybe it'll correct itself in a few hours, like the last time it screwed up. Maybe not. We'll see.

:: The Squire 9:54 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

RonK, subbing for Kos, has a list of
:: The Squire 9:49 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

There were reasons why I didn't take the SAT. Thanks to David Appell for the link.

:: The Squire 3:03 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Emma over at Late Night Thoughts has a few thoughts about the mighty Clenis(TM) which I happen to agree with.

:: The Squire 2:15 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

The longer and longer that dubya's in charge, the more I associate with the Barenaked Ladies song, "Helicopters."

:: The Squire 12:45 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

Amtrak has a 15% percent universal discount for all student purchases. Wonderful, you might say, but there you'd be wrong. There's a $20 one-time charge to get a dinky little card and recieve the discount. Reasonable, maybe, but not economical, considering that the trip I want to make - Chicago to Champaign and back - costs only $33 normally.

:: The Squire 11:04 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Don't you hate it....when the sticky-tack is stronger than the piece of paper it's holding up?

:: The Squire 10:25 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Mind Bender: Right now, I'm packing like a mule.

:: The Squire 10:15 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

What? Democracy in Iraq? I don't remember anyone saying anything about that. (Those without the free membership can click here .) Come look at the pretty aircraft carrier instead.

:: The Squire 9:14 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

So, I hear that we've won the War on Terror? Yeah, I believe that. Um-Hmmm. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

:: The Squire 4:57 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Pretty light posting the rest of today, as I'm working IEMS for a couple of graduation event thingies.

:: The Squire 1:45 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Wanna read a bunch of books this summer? Go here.

:: The Squire 12:41 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

So I'm now officially the only occupant in this room. Problem is, the only way I could work it is that I have to work IEMS at a bunch of graduations today and tomorrow, so I can't party or anything in here. Which is just as well, seeing as there's probably only a hundred and fifty people left in the dorms in Champaign. You might think that's a large number, but you first have to realize that a normal dorm here holds twice that, and seeing as there's 8 dorms, it feels like a ghost town here.

:: The Squire 12:10 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

REAL NEWS: Dr. Josh has some more conclusions about the misuse of the Department of Homeland Security.

:: The Squire 11:10 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

It's gonna be really lonely here without the roommates, not like I'll be here enough to be lonely, though.

:: The Squire 10:49 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

Well, I've finally met my roommate's lovely girlfriend, though it took him until the last day of the year to get her down here.

:: The Squire 10:07 AM :: email this post :: ::
...

I'm only posting this because I wanna see how it looks on the page. However, if anyone could track down the Founding Fathers quiz (who am I kidding, no one reads this) I'd apprecate it if you sent the URL.

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Low
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test and see where you end up.

:: The Squire 11:18 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

How am I gonna get all my shit home?

:: The Squire 6:14 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Warning: The Flag of the United States of America is not intended to be used as a security blanket.

:: The Squire 5:55 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Even though I live and go to school in a "blue state" I am amazed to find out how many people here are a) republicans and b) able to easily swallow W's spin. It makes political discussion here very confrontational, as many people seem to want to cling to their wrong viewpoints that the Bush Administration gives them. Hell, I occasionally get the "How dare you criticize the president?!?" schtick which really pisses me off. It's like these people don't understand that it's impossible to be considered free if you can't exercize your freedom.

:: The Squire 5:52 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

I really need to trim my sideburns, but the only scissors I have to do so are six inches long. The prospect of using them is currently filling my mind with images of my head without any ears.

:: The Squire 5:28 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

It just occured to me that I have no idea how certain other political bloggers find the time to go through reams of interview transcripts in order to make their cases. In all due respect, I have to say that these people must all have less of a life than I do.

:: The Squire 4:51 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

So I'm rounding up my books for buy-back, and I can't find my calc textbook. Yes, my really expensive calc textbook. This is not good. Then I get there and they don't take either my Bio textbook or my useless rhet textbook. So not only am I pissed, I also feel jyped.

:: The Squire 4:43 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Ok. My internet gets interrupted for some unknown reason and when I do the URL for this blog leads not here but instead to some weird archive site on blogger. I can still access the page by throwing a "www" in there but still, shit like this shouldn't happen.

:: The Squire 2:38 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

I just registered the blog at Eatonweb . For those less blog-minded, I can now be searched for. Woo-Hoo. If it works out, there should be a little rating thingy on the bottom of the blog. Maybe. I hope.

:: The Squire 1:42 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

My roommate is watching The Big Lebowski. Because I don't want the dorm room's ethernet port to be shut off again, I'm not going to speculate on how he appropriated it. It's not exactly the most intelligent movie in the world, though, which is a good thing, as it makes it easy to ignore.

:: The Squire 1:16 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

This is the first time that I'm going to eat lunch in my dorm's dining hall in almost ever. Well, not quite, but you get the idea.

:: The Squire 12:41 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

Go check out Dr. Josh and what he's saying about a Texas Ranger's misuse of the Department of Homeland Security. If you want a more intelligent commentary than what I can spout off, go check out Eschaton.

:: The Squire 12:27 PM :: email this post :: ::
...

I removed the link to google that came with the blog. My opinion is that anyone who doesn't already have google bookmarked or, better, associated with a keyboard shortcut, is a moron.

:: The Squire 12:12 PM :: email this post :: ::
...