Happy Belated Bill of Rights Day
All the classes you have sat in,
All the money you have paid
For "truth,"
Something must be wrong, though,
If your eye still wanders through the streets
Acting like a beggar.
Why not try this:
Let all the fake teachers starve.
Picture one of the great masters
In your mind,
Put your lips against his cheek
Each morning.
Say, keep saying,
"Dear Beloved, pinch me.
I want proof You're near -
A love-bruise on my rump will do."
The Friend is an unfathomable well
That knows everything;
Draw from that safe luminous sky.
Stay near this book,
It will stretch out its leg and
Trip you;
You'll fall
Into
God.
(The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, translations by Daniel Ladinsky)
I totally spaced Bill of Rights Day on Sunday. Rats! Well, I did fire 25 shotgun shells and 10 .30/06 cartridges, so I guess I celebrated the second amendment in style. Forgive me Father, for I have sinned... [rattler]
Rick Stanley at Armed Females of America - An Act of Civil Disobedience - Mr. Stanley, however, did NOT miss Bill or Rights Day. He was arrested by Denver police for "openly carrying a loaded weapon, in a holster, in violation of Denver Revised Municipal Code section 38-117.5(b)." Duncan Philp likewise protested and was arrested alongside Mr. Stanley. The article includes the speech Mr. Stanley made before putting on his holster and being arrested. He is running as a libertarian for U.S. Senate from Colorado. His campaign web site is www.stanley2002.org. Mr. Stanley, Mr. Philp, I salute you. [kaba]
Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Jonathan Krim at The Washington Post - National ID Card Gaining Support - a good overview of some current opinions about branding the subjects. As you may remember, I'm with Claire Wolfe on this one. I will not submit to a national ID. I encourage you to join us. If enough of us sheep turn out to be sheep dogs and refuse to submit, the idea will be still-born. And two positives can never make a negative. Yeah. Right. [unknown]
Robert Ellis Smith, a lawyer and privacy specialist, said the push for a national ID card is based on the false belief there can be a simple, high-tech solution to an immensely complex problem. "One way to predict the effectiveness of a national ID number or document is to look at environments where the true identity of all residents is known: prisons, the military, many workplaces, many college campuses," he writes in a new paper about national ID cards. "And yet these places are far from crime free."
Stephanie Salter at Common Dreams - The Ghost of Christmas Future in the Land of the Free - Another vision of near-future Amerika. [kaba]
HEY, GRANDMA! Are you home? I just picked up our new flag at the Wal-Mart Patriot Center. You want me to take down the old one?
"Bless your heart, Bobby. What would I do without you? It's been so long since I could afford my arthritis medicine, I can't even pull on the flagpole rope. And you know what trouble I'd be in if somebody passed by and reported us flagless. President-for-Life Bush made that a federal crime back in early- 2005, I believe."
Vin Suprynowicz at the Las Vegas Review-Journal - Victim disarmament forces in disarray - in these post 9/11 days, evereybody wants to have a gun. What's the Brady Bunch to do? [kaba]
So, will all those congresscritters (including our own Shelley Berkley) who have been assuring us for years that they "respect the Second Amendment" now seize this opportunity, boldly striding forth and demanding a repeal of each and every law and FAA regulation which disarmed and thus doomed heroic passengers such as Jeremy Glick and Todd Beamer on Sept. 11, reducing them to storming the cockpit of hijacked Flight 93 somewhere over western Pennsylvania armed with nothing but their little plastic butter knives from breakfast?
Lawrence M. O'Rourke at The Fresno Bee - Proposed measure strictly limits use of Social Security numbers - Representatives Shaw and Matsui are pushing a bill in the House, H.R. 2036, the "Social Security Number Privacy and Identity Theft Prevention Act of 2001". It classifies as an unfair or deceptive business practice the refusal to do business with someone because they will not give their social security number. It also criminalizes the sale of social security numbers. And a bunch else that I didn't bother to read. The credit companies aren't happy with it. Ron Paul is NOT a cosponsor, so there's probably something unconstitutional in it. Still, it seems like a step in the right direction. It's been in three different sub-committees since June. [kaba]
Google now has a mail order catalog search. [cowlix]
Slaf "is a new 'LookAndFeel' for Java/Swing, which aims to be faster, consume less memory, be easily configurable, and be completely parameterized. It can be used by the end user and/or integrated by the developer. It provides many themes, including Gnome, KDE, Pilot, Aqua, BeOS, Redmond, Aluminium, and Alien." The name stands for "Simple Look And Feel". I haven't tried it. [meat]