Stupid Evil Bastard

May it be better than the last one for all of us.

Yesterday was a big day for those of us working on The Big Move. Real-life friend and occasional SEB commenter JethricOne showed up with his very uncool, but very spacious minivan and proceeded to load up boxes like a mad man along with Bob and SEB contributor Eric Paulsen. Eric has a back condition similar to my own and, like me, is a bit on the heavy side so the two of us together kinda added up to one non-back-problem-suffering person. We loaded up Bob’s, Eric’s and my own car with all the stuff that wasn’t boxed or that was just oddly shaped and, surprisingly enough, we managed to get 98% of what needed to be moved into the four vehicles and then headed out caravan-style for the wilderness that is Hamburg, Michigan. I know I’ve been saying I’m moving to Brighton, but the truth is my in-laws actually live in Hamburg and just have a Brighton mailing address. It’s kind of like when I lived in Gingellville, but told everyone I lived in Orion Township because A) that was what our mailing address was and B) nobody had ever heard of Gingellville.

So we got it all loaded up and unloaded in record time and I was feeling mighty relieved because I could’ve sworn it was going to take two trips and my back wasn’t holding up and it was getting dark. J1 borrowed my copy of Neil Gaiman’s Smoke and Mirrors he had spotted through the opening in the banana boxes we packed the books in and then hurried back off towards home and family. A small price to pay for such valuable help to be sure. Eric and Bob stuck around long enough to have a bowl of homemade beef stew and then we all trekked out to see if we couldn’t catch a showing of the latest Harry Potter flick seeing as Anne and I had passes to the local theater. We got there only to find the place literally packed with a line for tickets that looked like something you’d find at Cedar Point. We jumped into the much shorter line for the automated ticket machines only to find the show was sold out which really surprised me because it’s been out since before Thanksgiving. So we gave up and Eric and Bob headed home.

Today we’re about to head back to the apartment for what we believe will be the last time. Kathy, my mother-in law, and Amber, one of my sister-in-laws, will be tagging along to help us with the final cleanup in preparation for turning in the keys. Plus Amber’s truck will be useful for hauling the final few remaining items—Courtney’s bike and several lamps mostly—back here to the house. I had hoped to take pictures of the whole process, but when we returned the Compeople van last Saturday as we were headed up to my parent’s place for Christmas Eve festivities my digital camera fell out of my coat pocket into the van and that’s where it’s been since then. I hope to pick it up today after we’re done at the apartment and then I’ll take a picture of my little computer fort in the basement here made mostly from the stacks of boxes of all our crap we’re storing here.

I spent 7 years in that apartment, which is about 5 more than I had planned on, and I have to admit it’s weird to not think of it as home anymore. Just the same, this new situation we find ourselves in just before the start of a new year will hopefully be leading to bigger and better things to come. The important thing is we’re safe, sound, and together. I’m looking forward to the next few months as I can’t help but be more than a little optimistic about them. Time, as always, will tell.

In Jerusalem, a CNN journalist heard about a very old Jewish man who had been going to the Wailing Wall to pray, twice a day, everyday, for a long, long time. So she decided to investigate. She went to the Wailing Wall, and there he was!

She watched him pray and, after about 45 minutes, when he turned to leave, she approached him for an interview.

“I’m Rebecca Smith from CNN,” she said. “Sir, may I ask you how long have you been coming to the Wall and praying?”

“For about 60 years,” he replied.

“60 years! That’s amazing! What do you pray for?” she asked.

“I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews and the Muslims. I pray for all the hatred to stop and I pray for all our children to grow up in safety and friendship.”

“And how do you feel after doing this for 60 years?” she asked.

“Like I’m talking to a fucking wall.”

[Editor's note: I think we've covered this one before on SEB, but I can't find the entry. It's been awhile since this first came to the forefront, but it appears the lawsuits haven't made their way through the courts yet.]

Here is a link to some info about a bunch of Mormon folks who have been editing Hollywood Blockbusters for what they adjudge to be unnecessary content which includes;

1) Violence - Sometimes only Gory Violence
2) Sex Scenes
3) Profanity
4) Suggestive language
5) Blasphemy
and in some cases
6) Homosexuality

I've just seen an A&E Documentary called "Bleep: Censoring the Movies" which was very interesting. It showed these "Flick-Cleaner-Upper" companies and how they work.

They work by basically taking existing movies and editing them on their computers to remove/obscure/dub content they don't like. There inst a financial issue because they have to buy a copy of each movie every time they sell one - so they supposedly aren't schtupping Hollywood of their money, but many Hollywood Directors (at least 15 named in a lawsuit including Stephen Soderberg and other Academy Award Winners) still strongly object about their intellectual property being battered in this manner - they see this as an intellectual property and artistic integrity issue - I agree.

One company has a more hi-tech opinion which handles movies kind of like a v-chip in a TV which allows each specific category of "offensive" material to be removed "on-the-fly".

Particularly difficult for me to accept is the fact that some of the movies that were cleaned up include "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List". Both sides of my family - my own British side and my wife's American side - have survivors and victims of WWII violence - I want everyone to know the true horror of war - not a sanitized version of it.

Something I find that particularly offensive - to remove the image of a young soldier lying on Normandy Beach attempting to hold his intestines in his body whilst writing in pain so that they can be rid of a part of a movie they narrowly adjudge to be "unnecessarily violent" is truly the height of ignorance in my opinion.

Personally my opinion is that if you are not willing to accept a director's vision - sex, violence and bad language included - then you should not receive the gift of that movie at all.

Art is art.

If you find the nude male figure offensive then you should not see ANY of Michaelangelo's "David" or of Da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man". To make and sell censored copies would be as offensive to me as it is for them if I used the words "Jesus Christ!" as a curse.

Anyone else feelin' me here, homies?

Regards,

Deoxy.

We’re almost done with the move to Brighton and my body is about ready to give out. I’ve not posted much over the past few days because, other than Christmas Eve and Day, they’ve been spent at the apartment packing the rest of our crap up. I’ve not had time to even get through my regular blog reads let alone keep up with current events to have anything to blog about. The good news is we’re almost done. Both the bedrooms and the bathroom are packed up and cleaned as is most of the living room and kitchen. Tomorrow we’ll be getting up at 7AM again to head on over and get the last of it packed then at 3PM several very generous friends will be showing up with their vehicles so we can load them down with boxes aplenty and then form up into our own little private caravan to haul it all over here and unload it. Assuming we manage to get everything in one trip tomorrow then Friday will be spent cleaning up the apartment a bit before turning in the keys. If we don’t quite get everything then Friday will see the last of it moved and then the cleaning will begin. If worse comes to worst we can always make use of Saturday as well, but things have gone better than expected so we’re hopeful we’ll get most everything moved tomorrow.

In the meantime I’m popping ibuprofen like candy and stretching out a lot to get my back to stop being so pissy with me. With any luck I’ll be back to my normal blogging schedule starting this weekend.

Probably won’t be getting much in the way of posting done today. I just got my PC back online after a week of being disconnected due to the move to my in-laws house. Plus that whole Christmas thing keeping me busy. Speaking of which I owe a big thank you to Laughing Muse for the DVD of Season 2 of Red Dwarf that she sent me off of my wishlist and to someone else who graciously purchased Splinter Cell 3 for me, but whose name remains a mystery as the packing slip doesn’t say. If you’re reading this and it was you then thank you very much for the gift.

So here’s hoping you’re spending the day with friends and family and Santa was good to you this year. More later, but for now Melvin the Official SEB Christmas Cat says…

Rumsfeld Slums For Christmas Chums in Iraq

Dec 25, 2005 6:03 AM

  By Carl Khristian Rove

Mosul, Iraq (Fabricated News Services) - In a hastily but tastefully decorated dining hall, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld served Christmas Eve dinner to a carefully chosen group of ten US soldiers, then fed them the usual propaganda concerning the Iraqi liberation (oil procurement and base building) effort by invoking the ghosts of 9/11 past. Not one to miss an opportunity to validate the war, Rumsfeld gave the after-dinner speech and forced emotion to creep into his voice when he spoke of the human costs of the Iraq war. He noted that the Christmas season was a time to remember those who have been sacrificed to the cause and added that really any season is a good time to exploit regret to gain support. “Terrorists would be emboldened to impose their dark holidays on the rest of the world if we were to give up,” he cautioned. “And so we will manipulate the majority of Americans to continue supporting this invasion with multitudinous misdirection and wire tapping, an unnecessary and repressive Patriot Act renewal and pseudo-heartfelt holiday attention grabbing,” he promised. “It is a test of ills between Al’Qaeda and the White House and let there be no doubt that we do a better job of ill-advisedly invading and controlling,” Rumsfeld added. Rumsfeld ended his five-day trip that began in Pakistan and included stops in Afghanistan and Jordan by role-playing as inferior hired help to serve food to the soldiers. The special fare was provided by IHOP (Iraq House of Pancakes) and included all-you-can-eat pickled vegetable pancakes, turkey sausage links, falafel stuffing, spiced fish soup, goat’s milk whipped topping, chickpea cobbler and blueberry-prune pudding. “Spiced fish soup is the big seller tonight,” Rumsfeld quipped after the few soldiers had made it through the serving line he alone manned. “I’m not certain which culture has been invaded here.” As troops outside tripped roadside bombs with their bodies, the lucky few inside suffered yet another lecture by Rumsfeld concerning staying the course and ruminated on how they would equally be responsible for certain attacks on US soil if they stopped writing letters home convincing their families and friends of the tranquil moods of liberated yet constantly wounded and murdered Iraqis. It was the second straight Christmas that Rumsfeld served Christmas Eve Dinner and Moralizing to troops in Iraq, but this year real, not plastic, food was provided and Americans were once again fed the turkey of a deal that is Iraq. Gobble, gobble. Allah bless us every one!

The Guardian poses the question, “Are there serious doubts about Darwinism?”. One of the arguments given in favour of the teaching of Intelligent Design in schools in the US is that evolution is “just a theory” and that not all scientists agree with it, and that suppressing the teaching of ID is tantamount to censorship of conflicting views.

And the answer is…

No. Religious fundamentalists have a problem with Darwin’s science because, simply, it does not square with stories told in sacred scriptures. But there the doubts basically end, and the judicial ruling in America that a supposed alternative to Darwinism, intelligent design, may not be taught in science classes is not going to upset many scientists.

It closes with this thought:

Darwin’s “theory” must be just about as solid as Newton’s laws of motion. These aren’t quite absolutely certain either, but they get you to the office every day, to Australia, and even to the moon.

One of the cooler new features in EE 1.4 is the addition of Extensions—an add-on that’s more than a plugin, but not as extensive as a module—which allows you to expand what EE can do by hooking directly into various aspects of the system without having to hack the code. One of the first extensions available allows you to incorporate the WYSIWYG editor called TinyMCE into EE’s publish page so that’s what I’m testing out now.

Read the rest of this entry

The entertainment industry got an early Christmas present in the form of The Digital Transition Content Security Act of 2005 ^(pdf). A bill they hope will become law and help to kill off any remaining means of enacting your Fair Use rights on any media you buy in the future. The folks in Hollywood aren’t stupid. They know that any broadcast flags or other copy protection schemes they put into their media won’t mean a damned thing if you can just hook your video player up to your video card’s analog port and just capture the video as it plays back—the so-called analog hole—unless they somehow force hardware makers into adhering to the copy protection. If this bill goes through that’s exactly what they’ll get:

Calling the ability to convert analog video content to a digital format a “significant technical weakness in content protection,” H.R. 4569 would require all consumer electronics video devices manufactured more than 12 months after the DTCSA is passed to be able to detect and obey a “rights signaling system” that would be used to limit how content is viewed and used. That rights signaling system would consist of two DRM technologies, Video Encoded Invisible Light (VEIL) and Content Generation Management System—Analog (CGMS-A), which would be embedded in broadcasts and other analog video content.

Under the legislation, all devices sold in the US would fall under the auspices of the DTCSA: it would be illegal to “manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide or otherwise traffic” in such products. It’s a dream-come-true for Hollywood, and in combination with a new broadcast flag legislation (not yet introduced) would strike a near-fatal blow to the long-established right of Fair Use.

The rationalization, of course, is piracy. Something that even this scheme will fail to curb to any real degree and the entertainment industry knows the truth about that fact already. As I said, they’re not stupid. What this is really about is making sure they have the option to nickel and dime your ass to death if you want to enjoy features you currently get for free such as time-shifting of programs or the ability to rewind a movie and watch a scene again.

Section 201 (b) (1) of the DTCSA gives you all of 90 minutes from the initial reception of a “unit of content” to watch your recordings. Heaven forbid you get a long phone call or an unscheduled visit from a neighbor when you’re engaged in some delayed viewing—once that 90-minute window closes you’re out of luck until the next broadcast.

It reminds me of the opening to the venerable sci-fi show The Outer Limits:

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear…

...and it’ll only cost you $1.95 for the first minute and then $.99 for each additional minute after that!

Michigan may be the next front in the fight to get Intelligent Design taught in schools according to this Detroit Free Press article. Not surprising consider that Ann Arbor is home to the Thomas More Law Center which defended the Dover school board in its recent court battle. The case in question could arise from a couple of teachers in a local district who took it upon themselves to include ID into their school’s curriculum:

The Michigan teachers, Julie Olson and Dawn Wenzel, included the book “Of Pandas and People,” which advocates intelligent design, on Gull Lake’s annual textbook list. The teachers also added a lesson involving the book to the district’s science curriculum.

The school board approved both, and the teachers taught intelligent design to middle school students for two years until a parent complained in the fall of 2004. That’s when the district ordered the teachers to stop.

The superintendent said board members approved the overall book list and curriculum and didn’t realize they were also approving something that included intelligent design. But the Thomas More Center maintained the district had approved teaching the controversial lessons, and it threatened to sue.

The IDiotsfolks at TMLC haven’t said if they’re going to follow through on their threat as of yet as they’re still stinging pretty bad from the royal bitch-slapping they took from Judge Jones in PA:

Center president and chief counsel Richard Thompson said he would like to appeal the Pennsylvania decision, but it was up to the Dover school board, which indicated Tuesday it likely would not appeal.

“What this really looks like is an ad hominem attack on scientists who happen to believe in God,” Thompson said of Jones’ ruling. Thompson is a former Oakland County prosecutor

Apparently the judgment I read and the one Mr. Thompson read must be two different documents as the one I saw was a pretty well reasoned rebuke of the claim that ID is science that deserves to be taught alongside Evolution in science classrooms.

Hey, did any of you see the Daily Show and what O'Reilly said about that Samantha Bee skit?

I'm thinking of sending this to Bill O'Reilly and cc'ing Jon Stewart at comedy central.

Mr O’Reilly,

I’m not a Christian, Mr. O’Reilly. My reasoning, partially at least, is to do with passages in the Christian bible, such as 1 Timothy Chapter 2 (KJV), which remind me why I avoid religion. I love and respect the strong, intelligent and remarkable women in my life far too much to submit to such a misogynous (meaning "Woman-hating" for Fox Viewers) doctrine.

I’ve always known what kind of “Conservative” you are, but I have watched your show and kept my mind open to what you have to say.

“Maybe I’m wrong,” I mulled in my mind after viewing your show. “Maybe I’m too negative.” I thought – “Each to their own.” I reminded myself.

However, your “War on Christmas” is nothing but a fictional comfort tale.

Mark Twain wrote, “Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.”

I don’t care what you celebrate and what comforting fiction you tell around your dinner table – just don’t expect us all to pretend and buy into this “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” fiction.

Come on, Mr. O’Reilly, don’t you at all feel a little silly calling December 25th the anniversary of Jesus Christ’s birth?

Didn’t it ever strike you while singing “While Shepherds watch their flocks by night” that unless you want your “Flock” pre-frozen you don’t graze sheep in December – not in the northern hemisphere at least.

Most Christian Churches these days admit the date is way off and that they just moved the date of “Christmas” to fit with the Roman mid-winter festival of “Saturnalia” and the other disgusting, sinful and depraved pagan Winter-Solstice traditions of feasting, gift giving, decorating trees in the home, kissing under the mistletoe etc.

Strange isn’t it that every single so-called “Christmas” tradition has no biblical basis nor was any of it considered part of celebrating “Christmas” until very recently in western culture (like 150 years or less).

Yet those traditions are proudly remembered far before anyone had heard of a “Jesus Christ” in the oral traditions of numerous pagan mid-winter festivals such as the Scandinavian holiday of “Yule” or “Juul”.

Are you really that ignorant that you don’t know the fact that the first American’s – those puritans which you conservatives pretend to proudly emulate - actually were such a happy celebratory bunch they banned Christmas?

Don’t you realize that the many pagan traditions of mid-winter that most Americans enjoy today this time of year were considered disgustingly hedonistic when this nation was in its infancy.

O.K., so maybe I am wrong about you. Maybe you were misinformed and didn’t know this stuff and you are really an affable old guy with a self-effacing sense of humor like the rest of us who got caught up in this “War on Christmas” crap because it sounded rousing and Ra-Ra-American enough to be fun on Fox. That’s what I’ve been thinking this whole time.

Then I saw your comments on a Samantha Bee sketch from Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” I laughed and realized how terribly I’d misjudged you, Mr. O’Reilly.

I’ve given you way too much credit because you really are this ridiculous that you would try and pick a fight with one of the greatest credits to American entertainment – Mr. Jon Stewart on such a petty minded premise.

Jon Stewart – I would dare venture the finest Satirist of his time, a man that surely Mark Twain would have had much to say about – and you pick a fight on the most ridiculous of premises – That Jon Stewart is anti-Christian … or at least anti-Christmas.

Lord Byron wrote, “Fools be my theme, Let Satire be my song”.

Clearly, during an incident that you have vowed that you will never mention again (but we will – oh how we love reminding your Fox-Fanatic Squad of your true nature) you’ve made it quite clear that you have about as much respect for women as you do for non-Christians.

Therefore I’m sure that you are very happy with the women-hating passages in the bible – and yet you talk about American freedom all the time.

If only public hypocrisy was rewarded with herpes!

Mr. O’Reilly, $100 from my single-income family to a worthy charity of your choice (perhaps one to do with American soldiers abroad) if you can send me a tape of you reading the portion of this letter which tells the truth about “The Reason for the Season” on the air on your show as a rebuttal to the fiction you are peddling.

Regards,

Me.

I'd really like to get your thoughts.

Thanks,

Deoxy.

Just a quick note to let you folks know that I’m now using a feature of ExpressionEngine that writes the blacklist to an .htaccess file to help cut down on wasted traffic by the referrer/trackback spammers hitting the site all the time. Some of the blacklist entries are on the overly general side, though, so it could interfere with the display of some entries. If you come across an entry on SEB or any of the other blogs I host that isn’t displaying properly or isn’t accepting comments please let me know about it so I can track down what the conflict is.

Also note that I’ve gone as far as to ban some free blog provider URLs completely because they’re allowing their service to be overrun by trackback and referrer spammers. If you’re a user of iBlogs and you’re not using your own custom domain name then you’ll find that you won’t be able to input your blog’s URL into the proper field of the comment form because I’ve banned the iblogs domain from SEB due to being hammered by spam blogs on that service for the past three days. Blogger was really bad at this for awhile too, but they seem to be cleaning up their act quite a bit. There’s also quite a few free dynamic DNS services that I’ve banned for the same reason. Not to fret, however, if your URL isn’t working and it’s a legitimate blog then just drop me an email and I’ll add it to the whitelist which’ll make it an exception to the rule.

Lastly I have re-enabled trackbacks for the time being as I’m testing a few things out so folks can once again trackback ping entries on SEB if you’re so inclined to do so.

‘Intelligent design’ teaching ban

A court in the US has ruled against the teaching of “intelligent design” alongside Darwin’s theory of evolution.

A group of parents in the Pennsylvania town of Dover had taken the school board to court for demanding biology classes not teach evolution as fact. The authorities wanted to introduce the idea that Earth’s life was too complicated to have evolved on its own. Judge John Jones ruled the school board had violated the constitutional ban on teaching religion in public schools.

The 11 parents who brought the case argued that teaching intelligent design (ID) was effectively teaching creationism, which is banned. They complained that ID - which argues life must have been helped to develop by an unseen power - was tantamount to religious education.

The separation of church and state is enshrined in the US constitution.

The school board argued they had sought to improve science education by exposing pupils to alternatives to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. But Judge Jones said he had determined that ID was not science and “cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents”. In a 139-page written ruling, the judge said: “Our conclusion today is that it is unconstitutional to teach ID as an alternative to evolution in a public school science classroom.”

He accused school board members of disguising their true motives for introducing the ID policy. “We find that the secular purposes claimed by the board amount to a pretext for the board’s real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom,” he said.

He banned any future implementation of the policy in Dover schools. (bold emphasis mine)

The case, the first of its kind, sets an important precedent in a country where several states have adopted the teaching of ID, reports the BBC’s James Coomerasamy in Washington. Ironically, he adds, it is a somewhat academic ruling in the Dover area since parents there voted last month to replace the school board members who brought in the policy. That move provoked US TV evangelist Pat Robertson to warn the town was invoking the wrath of God.

A lawyer for the parents said the ruling was a “real vindication” for those families who challenged the school.

Read the rest of this entry

The folks at pMachine.com have just released the latest version of ExpressionEngine and announced that they are now providing a free version of EE called ExpressionEngine Core for folks that want to take advantage of EE as a platform for their personal sites, but don’t need the full power provided by the personal license:

Back before ExpressionEngine, we developed a publishing app called pMachine, which was available in two flavors: Free and Pro. The feature-limited Free version helped us increase our user-base and create brand awareness, while the Pro version, with all the bells and whistles, allowed us to generate revenue.  As a business approach it worked pretty well.

When we released ExpressionEngine back in February of 2004, the idea of offering a free version appealed to me very much.  However, there was a problem:  EE didn’t have a lot of capability yet.  The first release only came with the bare essential core features.  It didn’t have a search module yet, or any of the APIs, or any of the ten additional modules, eighty plugins, and hundreds of features we’ve added since then.  There wasn’t enough meat on the bones initially to allow us to offer clearly demarcated free and paid versions, so we stuck to paid-only licenses.

As we approach the two year anniversary of the release of EE, it now has 19 available add-on modules and vastly more features and capability than it did when we started.  It has enough features, in fact, that we can now offer a very capable core system for free, while offering greatly enhanced capability for those who want more features. So that’s what we’ve decided to do.

ExpressionEngine will now come in three versions:

• EE Core License:  Free for personal use.  Limited features (10 modules).  Non-membership sites only.  No tech support.
• EE Personal License:  All features and tech support (18 modules).  Personal use only.
• EE Commercial License:  All features and tech support (18 modules).  Commercial use only.

In addition, we have reduced the price of our personal license to $99.95 (it was previously $149.95).  Anyone who purchased EE at the higher price on or after November 15th, 2005 is eligible for one of the following compensations:

• Option 1:  A free discussion forum module
• Option 2: Three years of additional access to our download area (normally it costs $19.95 per year)

If you purchased a personal license after November 15th, please email sales@pmachine.com indicating which of the two options you are interested in. Please include the username you use at pMachine.com.

The free version of EE stacks up pretty well against many of the other packages that are out there in terms of features and power and if you’re running a relatively small site it’ll probably be more than adequate for the job and as your site grows you can purchase a license and take advantage of the additional modules. If nothing else it’s a good way to check it out and see if it’s what you want to use before having to plunk your hard earned cash down for the full version. I’ve upgraded the installation of EE here to the new 1.4 release so please drop me a note if you notice anything funky going on. I don’t expect there’ll be too much of that as this was one of the more stable releases ever. I’ve included the full change log in the extended entry for those folks who are interested in what new goodies have been added to the package. Read the rest of this entry