But I got tagged, so I have to do it or else my boat will sink. I think that's what the chain letter said.
Four jobs I've had:
1. Research Analyst
2. Software Developer
3. Night Janitor
4. Grader
Four things I want to do before I die:
1. Get in a real fight in an inappropriate place. You know, like
maybe a waiter punches me in the face because he didn't like my tip, so I backhand him and then kick him in the stomach.
2. Teach someone else Karate, and have them test for their black belt.
3. Get really old.
4. Write some real significant code that other people, out there in
the wild, run and enjoy.
Four things I say a lot:
1. "Ok, whatever COMRADE"
2. "I can hurt you"
3. "O RLY?"
4. "That's what she said"
Four of my favorite foods:
1. Pulled pork with some decent cole slaw
2. Steak, medium rare
3. The Godzilla roll from sushi-zen
4. Chocozuma's Revenge
Four people I'd like to curse:
1. Marx
2. Stalin
3. Whoever wrote the code that's causing this bottleneck, because it
is making my life unliveable.
4. Charles Colson, but only a little. Maybe he'd be really clumsy for a day, or just have super bad gas at his next public appearance. That's all the curse I'd wish.
Four things I don't trust:
1. The Government
2. The police. See #1.
3. Communists, Socialists, Democrats, and Republicans... but now I've
repeated myself a few times too many.
4. Good Luck
Four people from history I'd like to meet:
1. Jesus Christ
2. Alexander Hamilton
3. Winston Churchill
4. Sun-Tzu and/or Musashi
Four movies I watch over and over:
1. Shaolin Soccer
2. Chronicle of Riddick
3. Bridge on the River Kwai
4. Enter the Dragon
Four people I'm tagging:
1. Ash
2. Argen
3. Paul
4. Cynan
We're looking for someone with the following qualities:
Java programming experience
Oracle (or at least some SQL) experience
Ideally you'll like doing statistics and analysis. It would also be really nice if you knew Struts and Hibernate.
If you fit that or know someone that does, and live in or would be willing to move to the Northern Virginia/DC area, email me at naginata@gmail.com.
So, I was discussing the cartoon controversy with a muslim friend of mine, and he suggested that "there's two kinds of free speech". This guy is an observant Muslim, who fasts during Ramadan and all that... but who also has no problem following an immodest American girl down the street with his eyes. In other words, when you think "moderate muslim", you're thinking about this guy. I expected a different answer from him, to say the least. When pressed, when I offer up something like "ok, let's accept the premise that the cartoons should not have been printed. Regardless of that, don't you think that throwing firebombs at an embassy is a little extreme?" He again focused on the cartoons, and would do everything he could to not discuss the reaction to them. Certainly not to condemn the calls for Danish blood in the street.
One of my other friends points out that if there's two kinds of free speech, maybe there should be two kinds of freedom of religion. I think he has a point.
First, here's the best of the dreaded cartoons so far.
When reading the commentary that went with this one, a thought occured to me. It's offensive to Muslims to show images of The Prophet. You'll notice that Jews frequently use "G-d" instead of "God". Does this mean we can expect CNN to start doing the same whenever it mentions God in a story?
Just a thought.
I had a Barber jones. I have removed the temptation to listen to Adagio for Strings over and over by... listening to Adagio for Strings over and over.
I suggest you do the same.
And then you'll want to play Homeworld, or at least buy the soundtrack.
So, by now you've all heard about Bush's warrantless wiretaps against American citizens.
I put it that way so that we know, at the root, the worst case of what we're talking about. Now let's be reasonable and think about how they were used. Let's say a known terrorist (We'll call him "Mohammed") gets on his cellular phone and calls an American (who we'll call "Robert"), who is a message passer for Al Qaida operatives in the country. His job is to relay mesages from Mohammad to an answering machine (which we'll call "Answertron 9000").
So the NSA has a watch on Mohammed's cell phone. They note that he's calling Robert, and record the call. Next they listen in on the call that robert makes a few minutes, or hours later to the Answertron 9000, leaving a seemingly innocent message. Shortly thereafter, Robert calls his sister Susan, and they listen in on that call as well, because hey, she could be involved.
It's not going to take very long for them to realize that Susan is innocent. After all, Robert calls her a few times a week, and the one conversation they did listen in to was about her kids soccer practice, or something else seemingly mundane. They're quickly going to drop that line of investigation, or at the very least, they should.
Now let's say that they're building a case against Robert, saying that he passed messages from Mohammed to the Answertron 9000, which activated a sleeper cell, which then blew up an orphanage. They take Robert to court. They bring out the tapes of his call. Either they have a warrant or they don't. If they don't have a warrant, Robert pretty much has to say "They didn't have a warrant", and then he goes home. If I were a terrorist agent, I would want them to spy on me without a warrant, if they had to spy at all.
I'm disturbed by the wiretap issue, but I think that if we focus on that, to the exclusion of all else, we lose sight of the bigger picture. I am not dismissing it, I'm simply saying, let's put it in context. Considering what's at stake, I am perfectly ok with them getting a warrant after the fact, provided that they have to get that warrant with the original evidence, NOT what they heard from the tape. No warrant means that it stops right there. They can take no action against that guy, unless he does something else to force reconsideration of the warrant.
Also, referring to the program as "secret" as if that's some terrible thing is silly. Lots of programs are secret, and every one of them is reported to members of congress, including this one. Saying otherwise (As the media and some dems have been saying) is dishonest.
And then you have Dean comparing Bush to that nutbar president in Iran. All I'm saying is this, if Bush were as bad as that guy, Dean wouldn't be nearly as free or alive as he is right now, period.
You all might remember that I'm at war with Mexico. Today I bring you good news from the southern front.
First of all, I met some potential neighbors over the weekend, they came buy to check the place out. They stepped out of their luxury SUV carrying bottles of only the priciest water - so they're probably serious. She thinks the houses are more like townhomes, and that they might be worth it at $750k or so. He's almost ready to buy at $900k. They seemed like nice people, even without giving them an allowance for their obvious yuppie tendancies.
Second of all, what's with Bush's blatant straw man attack on people who don't like illegal immigration? I mean, does he think we're all as dumb as some of us think he is? That sentence right there was awesome.
Second of all, I the PD9K (That's my car!) down to the dealership for my oil change/tire rotation/whatever service. I get all that for free, since mazda accidentally overstated my car's horsepower by 9. Lose 9 horses, get free maintenence for 4 years? OK! But now I'm getting off track. I told them about the concrete, and the gentleman I was dealing with shook his head. Then one of the other people in there grabbed some brake cleaner and a rag and went out to my car. By the time I was done reviewing and signing, he had a whole door almost done. We're talking like 5 minutes here. So, I'm going to pay that guy 15 dollars (between you and me, I'm going to give him 20, more if it takes him more than a half hour or so) to clean the car up, then I'm going to ask them to send the car to their "make a used car look new" guy.
I said the most dangerous thing you can say in a dealership, which is "I care less about how much it costs and more about getting it right". Of course, I meant it, but we'll see how that turns out. It's nice when you get little things taken care of.
Here's a checklist:
Letters from D/DD/PM
Cancel parking slot (2/7)
Call wageworks re: parking slot autopayments (2/7)
Work out alternate transport for 27th through 3rd trip
Talk to J re: 12th (2/7)
Talk to D re: 12th
Talk to A re: 12th and beyond (2/5)
Schedule truck rental
Forward Mail
Change Address @ Bank
Change Address @ Car bank
Change Address @ Car insurance
Change Address @ renter's insurance
Change Address @ cingular
Change Address @ IRA
Change Address @ Visa
What things am I forgetting?
Generally I don't like McCain, mostly because of our differing views on free speech, and because he's not as small governmenty as I'd prefer.
That being said, his letter to Barack Obama is a masterpiece.
I know that some of you were expecting me to repost one of those HILARIOUS cartoons of Mohammad by now, but I'm not going to. Reason being, once a month I eat at the Kabob House, which offers only the finest in halal meats, and I don't want them to behead me.
Or hold a protest at my house which involves throwing molotov cocktails and breaking down my garage door.
Or go hold my woman hostage until I promise never to speak my mind again.
Or drag my body around town so that everyone can see what happens to blasphemers.
Anyway, now that I've gotten the snark out of the way, can I say that I'm sick of hearing about The Prophet Mohammad? I respect Islam to the full extent required by law. In fact, probably more than that, since the "law" clearly requires very little respect.
And that's "the point" of this whole thing, isn't it?
And finally, have you seen the cartoons? Because they're silly and also dumb. Only one of them is good, and it is VERY good. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out which one.
...
I couldn't resist. Here's my entry:
Uh... The Jew made me do it. (*) / 0 {o,o} /|\ /|\ /|\ (__(| \ / \0 / \0 / \ -"-"- O RLY?
I'm now guilty of a beheadable offense. I've comitted a capital crime in the eyes of those nutbars.
I apologize to all the non-nutbar Muslims whom I just offended, including the guys at the Kabob House and also the cigar store. I did it to make a point, and also to take my free-speech-mobile out for a spin. If I can be friends with a guy who says "Seriously, how hard is it going to suck for you guys when the End Times come and Jesus gets his fat ass shot down by an F-16?", surely you can put up with this.
