Halloween Party

The highlight of the evening was when we played Star Trek Trivia. It was me versus everyone else. At one point I was down by 3 tokens, but I came back only to lose in sudden death.

I wore a hooded sweatshirt and called it a Unabomber costume. I decided to forgo wearing roadflares on my chest for a suicide bomber look. When about half the people there are carrying a concealed weapon, it's a bad idea to look like a real terrorist.

Doug was bragging about how he blew Jack away in an online session of "Doom". When either I get this 2 year antique upgraded or I get a new one, we should all get together and form an online gaming clan for Libertarians. I remember last year I saw some online gamers with names like KERRY>BUSH and 4 BUSH! The latter had a clan tag that said [GOP], suggesting that he belonged to a clan that consisted of only Republicans. So this is something we need to do. Let's all frag some statists!

An idea for a GOOD federal law

"No state or municipal government shall hand out direct payments or special tax breaks to a private entity for the purpose of encouraging it to move headquarters or operations to that goverment juridiction from a different juridiction with in the United States."

This would be a good use of the interstate commerce clause for a change. This law would prevent states from trying to lure companies away from each other, which leads to companies playing states and cities against each other. Its a zero game between state and local governments that only large corporations win.

Fred Phelps Hates Everybody

Fred Phelps hates gays. So do a lot of people. But Phelps carries his hatred even further. He insists that God is punishing the US military for protecting a country that tolerates gays.
Why he thinks God would punish the only government organization that fires people for being openly gay isn't clear. He also fails to realize that the military is fighting fanatics who would like to deny Phelps the right to practice the Christian faith or his twisted version of it.

He recently has been staging protests at the funerals of US casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan. Do not make mistake this man for a peace protester. This man is as openly pro-violence as they come. At these protests, he and members of his cult have desecrated American flags and shouted insults at grieving family members, expressing joy at the death of the soldier who is being mourned. Most members of the mainstream peace movement insist that they are motivated by the safety of the troops.

Personally, I can't wait for this nut to drink his almond-scented Kool-Aid and get it over with.

Some however are advocating a more proactive approach however. A bill in the General Assembly will make a disorderly conduct charge a felony if the act takes place at a military funereal. This bill is similar to hate-crime legislation in that it provides for a harsher sentence for crimes motivated by hate. In many states, beating a gay man with a tire jack because he is gay carries a harsher sentence than delivering a similar beating to a cashier because he doesn't know the combination to the safe.
Note that this law only applies to military funerals. If somebody sings "Ding Dong The Wicked Bitch is Dead" at your grandma's wake, it would still be a misdemeanors unless she was in WAVES, WAC, or was a nurse in a field hospital.

Perhaps the fact that an crime took place at a funereal could be considered an aggravating circumstance. In that case, such protections should not be limited to funerals of military personnel and veteran. They should be extended to services for police officer, firemen, grandmothers, and everyone else for that matter.


(I should also extend my sympathies to the makers of Kool-Aid. It isn't fair that their drink is now associated with mass suicide. I did a Google search of Kool-Aid just to see what would happen. Low and behold, the web page listed below the official site defined "drinking the Kool-Aid" as a slang term for blind obedience.)

Halloween Party

I keep meaning to post the invite for the Halloween Party but I keep forgeting. Oh well, almost everyone who reads this is on Jeannette's mailing list anyway.


October 28th, 7pm, at 1423 Louisedale Dr. (Jeannette & Tom Jaquish's house) Join us for dark revelry and macabre merriment.

Bring flesh from the animal or vegetable species or adulterated fluid to share, or filthy lucre to chip in for delivery pizza.
BYOBooze or favorite Halloween music.

~ Bring your Friends! -- All Free Thinkers Invited! ~
Star Trek Trivia and other games, music, darts, and contests. Kids welcome - We will have boys' and girls' play rooms, a pinata, and quilts and pillows for them.

Costumes Optional (this does not mean come naked and you know it): Come between 6 and 7pm to see what's in our costume trunk; call and tell us your size and we'll have some ready.
Call Jeannette for information: 484-5946 or http://us.f547.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=yippee_yokel@yahoo.com .

Get With the (Digital) Program!: $3 Billion for HDTV converter boxes

The government was to spend $3 billion on digital converter boxes for April 7, 2009, the date that has been set for the cessation of analog television broadcasts. These boxes are designed to allow obselete TV's to receive digital broadcasts.

If somebody cannot afford that converter box, expected to be priced under $70, they are spending too much time watching television. The average American spends 28 hours a week watching TV. Give up some TV and take up a part time job, and you should be able to afford by the deadline.

Seriously, I can't even believe that anyone outside of the entertainment and eletronics industries are in favor of this. Are people marching through downtown DC chanting "Passive Entertainment Is A Right!" or "We Really Have Nothing Better To Do!"?

I'm asking Congress right now to refrain from just giving away the converter boxes. Make people ask for them. Make them demand it. Make them form a couch potato lobbying group.

That I would find entertaining.

Travelocity Parody

Travelocity Presents the Roaming Gnome, Denouncer of Travel Myths

Myth: When traveling in the Middle East, avoid anyone wearing a heavy overcoat in the desert heat.

GNOME: Fiddlesticks! Some people just don't dress for the weather.
MAN IN OVERCOAT: Allah akbar! (KABOOM!)
BYSTANDER: Oh my god! Gnome down! Gnome down!

gratiutious rambling

Great. Thanks to that last post, there are a billion people who are no longer allowed to read this blog.

I noticed after I had denounced the LA Angels of Anaheim, the Googles ads started selling tickets to Angels games. As I write this, I'm hopoing that the White Sox can put them away tonight.

But I do wonder what sort of ads will appear if I use certain keywords and phrases. Here: Perscription drugs. Erectial dysfunction. Ticket Prices. Long distance phone service. Army of one. Choice of a new generation

There. I promise not to do that again. That will be the last time ad content influences my posts and not the other way around.

BSN "The 'N' Stands For News" Report

China to launch first dissident into space.

Human rights activist Lee Huang, age 46, is to become the first Chinese dissident to be launched into space. According to internal sources, his family is to be billed $2.6 billion for the trip. This the first time any country has sent a dissident into space since the USSR sent a capitalist dog into orbit aboard Sputnik 2 in 1958.

Shamless Product Plug Post

I saw Christmas stuff already for sale at a brick and motar store, so I went ahead at put up ornaments at the LPAC online store. Not everybody in the party is an atheist, and some atheists still celebrate Christmas out of habit.

Priceline Parody

I was bored, so I wrote my own script for a Priceline.com commercial, staring Jeri Ryan and William Shatner.

RYAN: I tried logging into Priceline.net but it doesn't seem to work
SHATNER: You had it wrong. It's Priceline.com
RYAN: Priceline.org?
SHATNER: NO! Priceline.com
Ryan: What was that again?
SHATNER: DOT COOOOOM! COOOOOOM!

Update to previous post

Friday post was up after it had been announced, (but before I heard of the announcement) that the bill that would post heavy restrictions on fertility treatments had been killed in commitee. There was a backlash against it from conservatives, liberals, and libertarians alike. This is why we play the game.

State Mandated Eugenics Makes A Comeback

They can't tell any adult in this state not to have sex, but soon it may be the only way many people will be able to have children in Indiana.

The Health Finance commission, a special committee in the Indiana General Assembly, is considering whether or not to recommend a bill that will prohibit unmarried couple and single people from using in-vitro fertilization. The bill will also create a special commission that will determine a case by case basis on which married couples will be allowed to have a child through artificial insemination.

Can you imagine a board that labels prospective parents "fit" or "unfit" prior to conception? Do you remember all those creepy sci-fi novels in which the government decides who gets to have kids? (I don't. I'm more of a "Fahrenheit 451" kind of guy.) The future is now, and a "brave new world" is on the verge of being created in the State House.

I hope the Angels lose in the first round of the Playoffs

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim? I hate it when the name of the team sounds like it was picked out by a marketing focus group. "Parsachs and Johnston Consolidated: a Macrosoft Subsidiary" Give the team a short sweet name that is fun to yell out during games.

The reason for the ridiculous name is because Angels Baseball LP thought that having "Los Angeles" would make the team more marketable, but the terms of the lease in their current stadium required that the keep "Anahiem" in the name.

The same nonsence occured over here when it was decided that Fort Wayne's minor league baseball team would be called the "Wizards" rather than "Falcons" because of the merchandising possibilities. Visions of over priced foam wands and pointy purple hats danced in the heads of the owners. The new team found themselves with a pagan-sounding name in the middle of the Bible Belt. I still remember all those angry letters to the editor.

Gratuitous Assisted Suicide Post

The issue of doctor assisted suicide has come before the Supreme Court once again. Less than 300 hundred people have used Oregon's law to end their own lives. More is at stake than assisted suicide. After all, if you need the help of someone with a medical degree to off yourself, are you compentent enough to make the decision? Ultimately its a luxery for rich dying people who won't need their money where they are going.

What is at stake is the issue of self determination. The federal government want to tell you what you can and cannot put in your body. This will probably go the same way as California's medical marijuana case: the state's rights and the individual's rights will be trumped by federal authority. I'm predicting that O' Connor and Thomas will be the only dissenting justices. Ironic that one of the most conservative justices on the bench will rule in favor of a cause traditionally championed by the left.

Something good out of this disaster

When President Garfield was assassinated by a member of his own party who did not get a job just for being Republican, it led to civil service reform. Now, for the most part at least, being in the same party as the president doesn't guarentee you a government job, unless you're Mike Brown.

Anyway the point is that a tragedy spurred the country to make long needed changes. Lets make spending cuts to pay for disaster relief, and lets make those cuts permanent, even in years that are relatively disaster free. Its better to do it now than when we really do hit rock bottom and default on all that overseas debt and the economy implodes like the glass jar hooked up to the vacuum pump in that one episode of "Mr Wizard's World".

Virtual Classroom!

Is it time for the virtual classroom? College students can opt to take online classes. Competence in Internet use is becoming more and more important in the workplace. Classes in some school districts are being canceled because they cannot afford the diesel fuel for the buses.
In most cases, this concept can only supplement and not substitute for flesh and blood teachers in brick and mortar schools. But subject like math and most science courses consist solely of facts and figure that can be just as easily be transmitted over a phone line as they can be presented in person.
Critics might claim that this system would be unfair to the increasing small minority of high school students without Internet access. But life isn’t fair and the public school was created because lower income parents simply couldn’t afford to educate their kids and rich folks could. Any system you could ever conceive of will favor someone over somebody else. But this is intended as a cost and personnel saving measure. If less students need to be fed and ferried to school then that frees up funds and faculty to focus on the children who actually do need the help.
Some students, even if they do have Internet access, will still need help and supervision from a tutor or teacher. Different students learn different ways, so a flexible system is needed. If anything, the virtual classroom will be more flexible than any educational tool previously devised. South Side High School students will be able to attend Snider classes, and kids in Miami could be conceivably be allowed to “attend” classes held in Anchorage. This could even allow us to expand the foreign exchange program to levels previously undreamed of.
Online and correspondence courses have had poor reputations. Many students simply lacked the self discipline to read material assigned by an instructor that they would never meet. But with networks that support more bandwidth and higher connection speeds, a teacher’s face and voice can be transmitted in real time to a home computer. Unlike traditional correspondence courses and television courses held on college access, students would be able to ask questions and give comments in real time as well. Disruptive students can be blocked from doing so, which would take less time and cause less of a ruckus than calling the dean of boys down to physically remove the disturbance. If a time delay is used like on live radio call-in shows, the rest of the class need not know what the clown had to say.
Let’s get a pilot program started. Start with one class, broadcast it on the Internet and let anyone enrolled in any accredited school attend for class credit. This way we can weed out any unforeseen problems that I failed to predict here. If it works, and we follow through on it, it will save money in the long run and get better results.