Airport Security Service: ASS
Once a man came to me and spoke for hours about
"His great visions of God" he felt he was having.
He asked me for confirmation, saying,
"Are these wondrous dreams true?"
I replied, "How many goats do you have?"
He looked surprised and said,
"I am speaking of sublime visions
And you ask
About goats!"
And I spoke again saying,
"Yes, brother -- how many do you have?"
"Well, Hafiz, I have sixty-two."
"And how many wives?"
Again he looked surprised, then said,
"Four."
"How many rose bushes in your garden,
How many children,
Are your parents still alive,
Do you feed the birds in winter?"
And to all he answered.
Then I said,
"You asked me if I thought your visions were true,
I would say that they were if they make you become
More human,
More kind to every creature and plant
That you know."
From GOP News & Views, an email newsletter published by the Republican Liberty Caucus:
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
George W Bush and Bill Clinton somehow ended up at the same barber shop. As they sat there, each being worked on by a different barber, not a word was spoken. The barbers were both afraid to start a conversation for fear it would turn to politics. As the barbers finished their shaves, the one who had Clinton in his chair reached for the aftershave. Clinton was quick to stop him saying, "No thanks, my wife Hillary will smell that and think I've been in a brothel." The second barber turned to Bush and said "How about you?" Bush replied: "Go ahead. My wife doesn't know what the inside of a brothel smells like."
The
iMac came. Apple continues to amaze with their industrial
design. Fancy shiny crinkly plastic Around the components and manuals
instead of the cheap sandwich bag variety. Setting up the machine was
simple. Plug the mouse into the keyboard, plug the keyboard into the
computer, plug the power cord into the computer and the wall, and
press the front-mounted power button. Switching from 9.2 to 10.0 was
as easy as selecting the start-up disk. Of course I had to fill in my
internet addresses. Connecting to the office network was as easy as
plugging in the RJ45 cable. I read that 10.1.1 also knows how to
connect to Windows shared volumes. Getting software updates is as easy
as clicking a button. There's a menu item on the Apple menu that goes
to the Mac OS X web site, where Apple has lots of freebies to
download.
Mac OS X is very nice. The machine came with 9.2 and 10.0
installed and update disks for 10.1 and 9.2.1. The 10.1 update took a
long time, but it went without a hitch. The 9.2.1 upgrade went quickly
running in classic mode inside of 10.1. And Mac OS X really is BSD
Unix underneath. The shell ("Terminal" application) worked as
expected. Emacs is there, but with no "meta" key that I could
find. Java 1.3.0 is installed, though I didn't try it out beyond
asking it to print its version number. The story has a bad ending,
however. My wife exploded. She wanted a portable. She intends to
return the iMac. I stopped talking to her at one point this
morning.
P.S. It is possible to get root (super user) access in Mac OS X. I
found it in a Google search yesterday. The sudo command
is built in and enabled, so you can use it to change the root
password:
sudo passwd root
Then you type your login password, type the new root password twice,
and you're golden.
CNN - Lawmakers reach deal on airport security - Federal employees in charge of airport security for the next three years. So says an agreement between house and senate leadership. Bill expected to go to GW's desk "by week's end". I hereby dub this the Airport Security Service, "ASS" for short.
Armed Females of America New York Armory - There's now a New York chapter of Armed Females of America. Welcome! Their home page says: [geneice]
ARMED FEMALES of AMERICA is the first no-compromise female organization dedicated to the "Right to Keep and Bear Arms." Our mission is to preserve the Second Amendment. We are working for the repeal of all gun laws. These unconstitutional laws violate Article II of the Bill of Rights (the Second Amendment), and are dangerous to individual freedom and security. The New York State ARMED FEMALES first order of business will be to work diligently with other Second Amendment Organizations in New York State to remove legislators who do not support the "Bill of Rights," and to inform the voters of this state as to which candidates support our rights. We recognize that gun laws make it harder for Americans to protect their families and homes. We will pursue all avenues necessary to allow Americans, especially women, to be self-secure in their daily activities.
In light of the recent attacks on civilians, AFA-NY is working to inform the people of this great nation that now, more than ever, we must have the ability to protect our families and ourselves against future cowardly attacks from this faceless enemy. Civilians, as well as military, need to be armed in order for all to be safe within our own borders.
If the civilians on these hijacked aircraft had been armed, they would have maintained control of the aircrafts or at worse prevented the hijackers from reaching their intended targets thereby saving many lives. Future attacks against civilians will be best countered by civilian militia, which is protected by our Second Amendment. This cowardly enemy has shown that it is not willing or capable of facing our military. Therefore, they will seek out future unarmed and defenseless targets.
This right of a civilian militia is guaranteed by our SECOND AMENDMENT.
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
Al Martin Raw - The Grand Tyranny - Mr. Martin appears to have misread GW's executive order on Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism, which has not yet appeared on the Federal Register's page of George W. Bush 2001 Executive Orders. It "does" mention terrorism, and it explicitly states that it applies only to non-citizens. Not that this makes it a good EO, far from it. But Mr. Martin is freaking out over things it doesn't say. [grabbe]
The language doesn't even mention the word "terrorism." The pro-government media uses the word to maintain ratings from a naïve flag-waving population. The way it is written, the bill can be interpreted that the government has the ability to prosecute any individual who disagrees with State policy. Or even anyone who constitutes a threat to the ratings of pro-government media. Or anyone who represents a threat to the naïvete of the American people. Anyone then could essentially be prosecuted under this bill.
...
I was thinking of my 8th grade junior high school American History textbook. The first part was all about glorifying our Founding Fathers and putting them on moral pedestals. And I though to myself that nowhere in this textbook was it mentioned that Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin all died from the long-term effects of sexually transmitted diseases. Nor was it mentioned that Alexander Hamilton was a notorious swindler, or that John Hancock was a smuggler, or that the great Massachusetts firebrand Samuel Adams was a falling down drunk who eventually succumbed from cirrhosis of the liver. (There is a micro-brewery named after him - appropriately so, since that's what he died from.)
