Chris is Angry: “Judge Rules That U.S. Has Broad Powers to Detain Noncitizens Indefinitely“. Almost nothing in “rights” legality angers me more than divisions between the rights of humans and the rights of citizens. The judge here, and anyone who agrees with him should learn a little history. The line was “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all… Read more →
Author: Mr. McLaren
Saints preserve us.
This news is so wrong. So wrong. Almost as wrong as this. And that is saying something. Read more →
Two pointless anecdotes, with pictures…
First, can I just say that I have a vague memory of what the sun looked like. What is this, the nineteenth consecutive day of rain? Madness. It has rained so much that the grass seed Sarah spilled on the driveway ages ago has been able to germinate, sprout, and grow to over an inch in length. Yes, seeds sitting… Read more →
Markup Languages & Politics
Because one of my job roles is keeping on eye on some markup language specifications that are relevant to our product line (hell, I even helped author the initial version of one of the ones that’s important to us). Mostly this means I have to occasionally subject myself to incredibly boring markup minutiae, but sometimes it means I get to… Read more →
The wilder their claims, the more the debate shifts right…
Okay, let’s review. First, three prisoners at Guantamao commit suicide. Then the camp commander of the camp, Read Adm Harris, where this happened is quoted as saying this suicide is “an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us“. Then we have the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, who we could perhaps assume might actually be, you know,… Read more →
The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî
Years ago I read through Philip José Farmer‘s Riverworld books. Those of you who have read them will recall that Richard BurtonWikipedia entry (along with lots of other historical personages) played a pretty big role in the series. One of the indirect results of my doing that reading was that I was driven to find a copy of Burton‘s “Kasîdah“,… Read more →
“And he sang only one song”
UPDATE: MP3 links no longer valid. To celebrate how much Danny’s new CD is just what I needed, I wanted to post some MP3s. However, instead of posting some tunes off of Danny’s new album, which you should just go buy for yourselves, I shall instead post a few of the tunes that Danny used to cover during his live… Read more →
“It’s not the end of the world, just yet”
You know what the exact cure for what was ailing me earlier today is? The new Danny Michel CD. I wasn’t expecting to have it today–today is the official release date, but I didn’t expect that to matter for getting it in Halifax (I know Danny is signed with some part of the Universal music empire now, but… ), and… Read more →
“I gave and gave till I gave up…”
I have had the kind of day where… well… hm. Let me put it this way: if you are in a number of really frustrating conference calls over the day, and you find yourself putting your phone on mute so that you can take a hammer and smash it into your desk over and over while screaming “MISTER SMASHY! MISTER… Read more →
Holy @#$%
It’s a truism in Canada that socialised medicine is just better than the American system, except among rabid neocons. (Actually the truism is a bit more nuanced, but certainly the perception is that the average person is much better off here…) Every once in a while you hear a story about some family in the U.S. without insurance that are… Read more →
Work Less Party
It seems that B.C. has a political party that probably has In Praise Of Idleness as part of their required reading. I wonder why they haven’t taken off–it seems like a pretty big no-brainer for most people to be in favour of a shorter work week, doesn’t it? Policy – Work Less Party Unemployment today is now double what it… Read more →
The social relations of business
Gwenda points to an interesting discussion at Asimov’s message board. Apparently the magazine (or rather, the managing editor) had purchased a story from Jim Grimsley (author of the nifty book The Ordinary, and a bunch of other stuff I haven’t read yet), and the owners of the magazine ordered the story killed. As you can imagine, this has ruffled some… Read more →
Specter’s compromised.
Specter’s compromise: “You can have everything you wanted, Emporer Bush, sir.” Specter Offers Compromise on NSA Surveillance The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has proposed legislation that would give President Bush the option of seeking a warrant from a special court for an electronic surveillance program such as the one being conducted by the National Security Agency. […] Another… Read more →
Quickies
Darwin strikes again: Kung fu fan tries to stop train. I swear I am totally going to learn how to pronounce “Xianglongshibazhang!”, and I am totally going to yell it out whenever I see someone being unutterably stupid. Ha-ha: Roy Moore Loses. Not a judge anymore, not a governor either. Apparently even in Alabama there’s some people who can’t get… Read more →
I blame Linda Medley
Anyone got a spare $3,000,000 (Canadian) kicking around? See, I spent a lot of time tonight shopping for castles. It’s not insane–I need more shelf space for my books, and nothing says “lots of shelf space” like a nice castle; especially a castle with a tower. While I was doing that, I ran across this lovely manor house in Ireland.… Read more →
