PicoSearch

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 29 Jun 2001 12:00:00 GMT

PicoSearch is another free site indexing service. They allow up to 1500 pages for the free service, and they charge less than Atomz: $200/year for up to 3000 pages. The result pages don't look as slick as Atomz, and they don't have as many advanced search features. You also have to pay to get scheduled indexing. I think I may index all of billstclair.com with PicoSearch, and use Atomz for just the EtWoF day pages and stories. Thanx once again to Glenn Dixon, author of The Daily Rant.

Chris Gibbin fixed the Traffic site and sent me a short thank-you letter. Apparently they've been hacked before.

I sent the following letter to my New York state senator, via MPP, opposing Governor Pataki's plan to "reform" the Rockefeller drug laws. His plan increases penalties for marijuana "offenses". Unfortunately, this was not one of the recommended letters. Theirs were much tamer.

To: <saland@senate.state.ny.us>
Cc: <bitcraft@taconic.net>

June 29, 2001

The Honorable Stephen Saland
946 Legislative Office Bldg.
Albany, NY 12247-2247

Dear Senator Saland:

Please vote against Governor George Pataki's plan (S. 4237) to increase penalties for marijuana.

Marijuana use is less harmful than sugar, less harmful than coffee, and far less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. In recorded history, noone has ever died from a marijuana overdose. It has no lethal dose. Marijuana prohibition is a sham based on nothing but lies.

Further, marijuana has many medical uses. If I were taking drugs for cancer or AIDS, drugs that cause nausea, I would smoke it, legal or not. It's the only known nausea cure that actually works.

We should not be discussing the increase of penalties for marijuana use. We should be discussing its complete legalization. It should be available in bulk in the supermarket for a few dollars an ounce.

Make it so.

Sincerely,

William W St. Clair
bitcraft@taconic.net

Iran-Contra Returns to White House - Elliott Abrams was named yesterday by GW "to a senior position at the White House National Security Council". [grabbe]

Charley Reese at the Orlando Sentinel - Are you Confederate but don't know it? - I'm Confederate. I know it.

Many people today even argue the Confederate positions without realizing it.

For example, if you argue for strict construction of the Constitution, you are arguing the Confederate position; when you oppose pork-barrel spending, you are arguing the Confederate position; and when you oppose protective tariffs, you are arguing the Confederate position. But that's not all.

When you argue for the Bill of Rights, you are arguing the Confederate position, and when you argue that the Constitution limits the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, you are arguing the Confederate position.

bob lonsberry - Cell Phone Law Is New York's Shame - The New York legislature recently passed a law banning the use of hand-held cell phones while driving. Meanwhile, the budget is 3 months late. Idiots.

One possible explanation for that might be that now New York's hundreds of thousands of cell phone-owning motorists will have to buy adapters and ear pieces to convert their phone to the new standards. That equipment costs between $15 and $250. If the new law does nothing for highway safety, it does do a lot for phone company profits. Phone companies which, by the way, donate to New York politicians.

Amazing coincidence, huh?

...

Before long they're going to arrest you if you don't wipe your fanny the right way.

Charley Reese at the Orlando Sentinel - Oppose McCain-Feingold's assault on the Bill of Rights - Mr. Reese chimes in on the Incumbent Protection Act's blatant attack on our first amendment right to free political speech.

It seems pretty basic to me that Congress shall pass no law that infringes on, much less prohibits, American citizens, as individuals or as members of groups, from voicing their opinions on political issues and on the members of the herd of mediocrity who run for public office. As for which groups we belong to, that's none of the government's business.

James V. Grimaldi and Bill Miller at The Washington Post - Appeals Court Vacates Microsoft Breakup Order - Microsoft is out of the woods, at least for a while, by unanimous ruling of the seven-judge D.C. court of appeals. They didn't find Microsoft innocent. They found Judge Jackson guilty. Yawn. This story is all over the place. Kuro5hin discussion here. [kuro5hin]

Thomas C Greene at The Register - Judge Jackson is a big fat idiot - I resemble that remark. He's not fat. Reminds me of a B.C. cartoon. B.C. sees written on the side of a rock, "B.C. is a four-eyed dunce". He counts his eyes with his fingers and then crosses out "four-eyed".

Thus the District of Columbia Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Jackson "seriously tainted the proceedings," with "public comments [which] were not only improper, but also would lead a reasonable, informed observer to question [his] impartiality."

In other words, it probably wasn't the brightest idea in the world for Jackson to have granted interviews to reporters in which he compared the company to a drug gang and Bill Gates to Napoleon Bonaparte while the trial was still going on.

I. Valdes at LinuxMedNews - Review: Free Practice Management - a review of FreePM, a GPL'd Zope-based medical practice management system. Currently in third beta. They expect version 1.0 to ship in a few months. There's an on-line demo. I recommended checking it out to my brother, Steve, who has a urology practice in Williamstown, MA. [newsforge]

segfault.org - World Unix Editor Contest Ends in Brawl - a fight between emacs and vi officianados ended in tongue-in-cheek violence. Hehe. [newsforge]

One issue that remains unresolved is who will clean up the meeting room for next week's conference of Perl and Python programmers.

Seth H. Bokelman - The iceBook cometh - One man's opinion of Apple's new iBook. He likes it, though he thinks that Mac OS X is not yet ready for prime time. OS 9.1 works fine. [iowa]

The iBook is a really slick package. It's well constructed overall, and it seems to be of higher physical quality than any PC of a similar price. The clear polycarbonate coating does show fingerprints, but it is not very noticeable, as you've got to tilt the machine to get a glare off of the surface before you can see them. I've put a couple of scratches in the surface somehow, so it must scratch pretty easily, but they're extremely hard to notice, much like any transient fingerprints.

...

Even with the extra warranty cost, the iBook is still a lot of computer for a little price. I like it better than any Dell laptop I've used, and the only thing that comes close in terms of build and design quality are some of the high-end Sony VAIO laptops.

In my opinion, this is THE consumer laptop to beat. Don't get me wrong, the PowerBook G4 is still a better computer, but you can buy two iBooks for the cost of a decently equipped G4.

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair