Getting myself on the news...they asked to interview someone for their opinion so i gave it...
This is the home of stonewall, and one of the founding centers of the US gay rights movement and it is tragic that such cowardice happened here.
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There was a missed post from feburary, it didn't seem to post, probably because i suspect i was trying to bug test the live-journal interface (doesn't allow i-frames)...
I need to write something to fix this in an upcoming patch for the software.
So here is the reposted article.
This is the third attempt at writing this entry, since safari has been logging me out midway through writing.
I was thinking about how i really want to do a proper road trip at some point, and while i don't have the time right now, i thought i'd make a rough plan with the help of the Great and Powerful Google.
After working out i'd like to head to San Francisco and chose places i'd like to visit along the way, this is what it gave me.
Admittedly its nearly all southern places, but then i can always do a northern road trip in the future :)
I told google to avoid all highways, since it means i can see the little places as well as the big places, which is part of the reason for the trip.
I'd want to stay in each of the places on my list, so this would be about a 3 week trip, so not really practical on the amount of holiday i'm given... maybe i could work this into the idea of being a roving developer...
Aside from the time however i'm more concerned about the carbon footprint such a trip woud generate. If i took my current car, thats about 250 gallons of gas and thats being optimistic... so i'd want a carbon neutral car... anyone mind lending me their Tesla?
Realistically tho, until the technology allows me to do this trip without burning huge amounts of carbon fuels, i'm going to have to wait at least a few years...but when the car is available, i'll be heading to San Francisco... anybody want to come with?
However given i'd probably want to get back to where i started, i'd probably do the extra special see as much as humanly possible trip, which would be something like this...
For those of you wondering about spokane, i'm still waiting for my breakfast in spokane from 4 years ago...
So i'd probably end up needing a bit more time for this trip... still i'd love to do something like this... roll on fuel cell green supplied cars :)
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For those of you haven't heard the Bad News™ , George Bush on his way out signed a executive order that allowed for a "right of conscience" a.k.a. "fundies allowed to act like morons while pretending to be doctors" instruction. The effect of this was to allow a Pharmacist, Doctor, Nurse, or Janitor to refuse to do something medically required for the patient (like birth control for example) and the employer not be allowed to fire them provided it was for a religious reason.
Aside from the temptation of inventing a "teaist" religion where my religion required me to drop whatever i was doing to have a cup of tea any time i felt like it...this was one of the worst abuses of an executive order (and yet more evidence for the need of ending this legal nightmare forever).
However thankfully as of Friday, said executive order has been rescinded by the current president (Obama isn't perfect, but does anyone get tired of calling Bush "the former president")
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This is the third attempt at writing this entry, since safari has been logging me out midway through writing.
I was thinking about how i really want to do a proper road trip at some point, and while i don't have the time right now, i thought i'd make a rough plan with the help of the Great and Powerful Google.
After working out i'd like to head to San Francisco and chose places i'd like to visit along the way, this is what it gave me.
Admittedly its nearly all southern places, but then i can always do a northern road trip in the future :)
I told google to avoid all highways, since it means i can see the little places as well as the big places, which is part of the reason for the trip.
I'd want to stay in each of the places on my list, so this would be about a 3 week trip, so not really practical on the amount of holiday i'm given... maybe i could work this into the idea of being a roving developer...
Aside from the time however i'm more concerned about the carbon footprint such a trip woud generate. If i took my current car, thats about 250 gallons of gas and thats being optimistic... so i'd want a carbon neutral car... anyone mind lending me their Tesla?
Realistically tho, until the technology allows me to do this trip without burning huge amounts of carbon fuels, i'm going to have to wait at least a few years...but when the car is available, i'll be heading to San Francisco... anybody want to come with?
However given i'd probably want to get back to where i started, i'd probably do the extra special see as much as humanly possible trip, which would be something like this...
For those of you wondering about spokane, i'm still waiting for my breakfast in spokane from 4 years ago...
So i'd probably end up needing a bit more time for this trip... still i'd love to do something like this... roll on fuel cell green supplied cars :)
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As of today, President Elect Obama is looking exceedingly less shiny. One of the most disguisting examples of the christian right has no place leading the religious aspect (separation of church and state missing here) of his inauguration.
I know Obama has a plan, that might be a good idea in the long run, but he should know better than trying to make nice nice with the religious right... just because they wear suits instead of robes, and are clean shaven instead of bearded, they are just like the islamists, foaming at the mouth, listening to the voices in their heads and possessed of a god complex fuckwits.
Cynicism is easy to give into but i really hope Obama isn't going to be one more political scumbag we end up hating...
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...and i thought i must be seeing things... so i took a photo...
Now i know that inspite of them electing Sarah Palin... Alaskans have managed to elect a democrat senator this time and also in the past elected Mike Gravell, but still there is a certain delicious irony in this book.
Edit:Actually it was Barnes and Noble...
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Lizzy the Lesbian gives her perspective on the... ahem "elections"
That said the thought of people having "elections" over bush is something that calls for a large pint of whisky to the memory centre of the brain...
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Here's my octophecta
So only 2 so far, but every step forward is positive...
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So with the bleak probability of Proposition 8 being passed by the illiterate Californians (I'm sorry California is my least favorite state at the moment), the ACLU has a new strategy that is raising the ire of the religious right.
One of the key concepts of the california consititution is to promote and provide liberty and freedom to all, this key principle is contradicted by Proposition 8, and so is incompatible with the overall constitution and so the supreme court of california can declare the Proposition an invalid proposition since it conflicts with the equality principles of the constitution.
Its a less neat solution, but hopefully California will be allowed back onto the adult's table once the supreme court reconfirms its previous ruling.
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I'm still waiting to find out if California has kept on the path of progressiveness and fairness or should be going back to the zoo with the other throwback states...
That said i saw this rather clever ad, apparently it offended some of the religious rights... i can't think why...
Watching Meet the Press, i'm thinking its is pathetic. What is wrong with being tough and sticking to your guns with questions. In Britain our press knows not give politicans a break and when they are talking crap, calling them on it, even if they agree with the overall policies and like the politicians...
It seems like the Meet the Press team seems to have their BS detectors removed before starting worked.
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I'm thinking about donating some of my hard earned cash to Obama's political campaign.
I should say that while he is not perfect, i think he's going to be amazing for the USA and i look forward to a kinder, wiser and more noble administration than has been seen in a generation or 2.
However the english in me feels rather sad and let down by the idea that despite this amazing and inspired leader, he might loose because of political slandering by a trumped up excuse of a human being who fails at standing up for anything he believes in just to get elected. The budget of a state senatorial campaign would probably dwarf the election costs of an entire british political party....
In the UK i know Obama would win, it might take the length of one of his speeches, but his intelligence, principles, charisma and wisdom would bring him straight to number ten with a landslide.
Should i be pragmatic (The system is flawed, but i can help Obama winning with donations), or should i be principled (Obama should win on his own merits, not on how much advertising capital he can raise)?
I have to say i'm leaning towards the pragmatic... but i'm curious as to what people think?
P.S. If McCain wins, i'm planning to retreat back to the UK, provided you pay for a large bag in the hold you are welcome to come back with me (My parents have been requested to clear out the spare room for political refugees...)
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After a huge amount of chatter, most of it uninformed guesswork, Barack Obama has finally announced his running mate :)
Senator Joe Biden, will hopefully be moving into the vice presidential quarters on January 2009, which is one thing that is confusing me, by taking up the presidency and vice-presidency cause the american equivalent of a by-election...?
Either way I'm looking forward to McCain and McCheney Junior getting run out of town when people finally realise they are peddling finely prepared BS...
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For my American readers, you may not know about Mock the Week, its a BBC satirical show about the week's news, and nobody is safe (except Obama, who they described in terms of the second coming), and their favorite punching bag this week... John McCain.
The topics of attack included
Still if McCain gets elected, i can just see the BBC being declared a terrorist organization...
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I know i'm a bit late on this, mainly because i only watched the countdown podcast this evening.
I've tried to maintain an interest in US politics, but its difficult to do when you are on the other side of the ocean. After coming here i've tried to make up for lost time, but even then my first real exposure to John McCain was in the Iowa debate. I saw someone who made my skin crawl, he honestly struck me as someone "scary beyond all reason", and when he finally rose to the republican leadership i found my inital gut reaction confirmed time and again. But i didn't have the historical depth to know enough about his history, beyond his status as a Viet-Cong prisoner of war and his rather slimy entry into US politics.
Comments like a hundred years in iraq, and lack of any knowledge about the world outside his bedroom, his attitudes to people who disagree with him, all helped confirmed my feeling that this is the president we were warned about. The one that would be so insane as to press the button.
Then came the "its not important" comment, and after all the attempts to defend the indefensible, Keith Olbermann delivered this commentary.
Part 2
Honestly, countdown can at best be called infotainment, it would not be considered news anywhere in Europe, but Keith Olbermann does sometimes channel the person he attempts to emulate.
He may not be Edward R. Munrrow, and the republican party is far more calculating and intelligent than Joe McCarthy, but if enough people listen to him, they might start thinking again.
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