Funk Babblings

The good news:
You've heard of Wikipedia, right? Well, now there's WikiTravel!

The bad news:
Sky Marshals Place Innocent People On 'Watch List' To Meet Quota
(Noted by both Bruce Schneier and Pam at Pandagon, both pointing to the same source.)

The latest entry in the who-can-be-the-more-backward-state rivalry between Ohio and Indiana....

"Judge: Parents can't teach pagan beliefs"

An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge's unusual order that prohibits him and his ex-wife from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals."

The parents practice Wicca, a contemporary pagan religion that emphasizes a balance in nature and reverence for the earth.

Cale J. Bradford, chief judge of the Marion Superior Court, kept the unusual provision in the couple's divorce decree last year over their fierce objections, court records show. The order does not define a mainstream religion.

Apparently the judge is concerned about the discrepancy between the pagan parenting and the Catholic school the kid attends.

The comments on this over at Daily Kos are also interesting, among other reasons, for showing that lots of non-Christians go to Catholic schools, and also that fundamentalists exist even in "non-mainstream" religions.

Does anyone here buy music from Apple's iTunes Music Store (iTMS)?

I don't, because their music is encrypted in a form that's both incompatible with Linux and most non-Apple players, and too restrictive for my taste even within those parameters.

But I drink Pepsi (no jeers from Coke people please, anyway I drink a lot more Cherry Coke from the office vending machine), a third of Pepsi bottles are giving away an iTunes song, and I don't often bother to "cheat" to be sure not to get a winning bottle, so I am starting to accumulate some winning caps. So far I have three (worth a whole 99 cents apiece!), and I'd hate to see them go to waste. Anyone want the claim codes?

Of course, if I really wanted to bother, I might be able to use them myself.... The same guy I can thank for being able to play DVDs on Linux has released a program that runs on Linux and allows downloading unencrypted versions of songs purchased from iTMS. (Of course that server is getting hammered now. News.com.com.com.com has a story explaining the whole thing.)

I'd rather just give them away though. So leave a comment if you want a free song from iTunes.

Last night I watched parts of the Condoleezza Rice confirmation hearings on C-SPAN. The talk about Iraq got all the press, and there was a great exchange with Kerry about Iran, but what really struck me (other than that Rice apparently doesn't read any more than her boss does) was what she said -- and didn't say -- about torture.

( Read more... )


Oh yeah, read more about Rice and torture in this Daily Kos diary.

The U.S. government now requires publishers to seek licenses in order to publish works by dissident and non-dissident writers from sanctioned countries.

"These are countries that pose serious threats to the United States, to our economy and security and our well-being around the globe," Millerwise said, adding that publishers can still bring dissident writers to American readers as long as they first apply for a license.

That's funny, I don't remember the first amendment saying anything about "if the government grants a license."

(Our local paper buried this story on page G-7, a few pages beyond the advice columnists and letters to Santa.)

I figured that Ken Blackwell (both Ohio campaign chair for Bush and in charge of voting for Ohio) had probably manipulated the Ohio vote somehow, but I never expected that we'd get this close to proving it....

First, of course, were the hours-long lines in Democratic-leaning areas such as parts of Franklin county. Everyone thought it was was just a symptom of high turnout, but it turned out that not only did those precincts have fewer voting machines than in 2000, but there were machines left unused in storage. In addition, elections officials were more concerned with getting the machines to the polls by the end of the day than by the beginning of the day. (The Columbus Free Press seems to be the best, though not the most objective, source for this information and continuing coverage. The Columbus Dispatch also has a story.)

But that's old news now.

The Greens and Libertarians showed the value of third parties by leading the fight for an Ohio recount. (See votecobb.org for more information.) Apparently they were getting close to something, triggering a coverup effort from Blackwell....

(I'm getting all this through Daily Kos diaries, in case it's not obvious from the following links. Be sure to read the comments for further information, and follow the links to primary sources.)

Ohio Election Investigation Thwarted by Surprise Blackwell Order:
On Friday in Greene county, recounters were told they had to stop their count because Blackwell had locked down the ballots, which were no longer considered public record. However, Ohio law requires all election records to be made available for public inspection and copying, makes it a crime for any employee of the Board of Elections to prohibit any person from inspecting the election records, and defines violation of these provisions as election fraud.

Ohio Poll Records Left in Unlocked Building
Then Friday night, despite the lockdown order, the ballots and related records were left in an unlocked building, and there was apparently evidence that people were in there overnight.

And finally (for now)....
Monday morning a lawsuit will be filed relating to the Ohio election problems.

Remember, it was the coverup that brought Nixon down, not the original crime. This time the coverup may only bring down Blackwell, but it's a start.

(Oh yeah, at noon today there were "You Stole My Vote" protests at all the state capitals.)

Update: New Study: More Absentee Votes than Voters in Ohio

Update 2: Keith Olbermann at MSNBC is on the story.

My apologies to the vast majority out there who don't care about any of this....

( PHP is annoying )

( Soekris + m0n0wall = nice small firewall )

( Geek Showdown: Debian vs Cartoon Nudity )

mephron tells us that gaming books are subject to confiscation on the New York Waterway ferry. (Unless you fight it, of course.)

How long until we get to return to sanity in this country?

I find this quite disturbing:
Chip Implanted in Mexico Judicial Workers

Will security-sensitive jobs in the U.S. require this soon? Maybe I should just forget the idea of getting another computer security job.

Found at Daily Kos....

George W. Bush's concessions to terrorists since 9/11:

1. Keeping the citizenry in a state of fear
   
2. Making the citizenry less free
   
3. Starting an ill-conceived holy war
   
4. Alienating our country from its allies
   
5. Allowing Osama bin Laden to remain at large
   
6. Letting the Saudis off the hook for their role in terrorism
   
7. Engineering the most effective recruitment strategy since the Hitler Youth by inspiring innumerable peoples across the world to hate us so much that they actually join al Qaeda
   

And now a Republican Senator from Arkansas has introduced a bill to remove all the sunset provisions from the Patriot Act, giving permanence to the second item. On the other hand, senators on both sides are working to scale back the Patriot Act.