Brian Lundmark over at Rockwood Comic seems to have had the same thoughts I did.
Yesterday’s comic:
Man, I should have titled that last one “Some good can come of this!, but I guess an inside joke not many out of the Cleveland, Ohio are would have gotten….
As a present to me, this is the end of all whining about how an election was stolen and an end of campaign ads. Anyone living in Ohio realizes that there isn’t a better present than that!
As far as daily living, this election result will be the most benificial. You can breath better in Ohio now and I’m not referring to the total ban on smoking off of your own private property that goes into effect on December 8th. Breathing in the office should be easier too. At the end of the last election, those who voted democrat around the office were very bitter and very angry. You quickly learned to stay away from them. Today the comments I heard were republicans were “Oh, well. Stuff happens; fear not!”. And even the staunchest replublican greeted me with a smile when I walked in the door. And that is SOOOoooooo much better an environment to be in. So, it’s a good birthday present. I was not looking forward to the atmosphere in the world in general if the republicans had won by a slim margin.The ballot issues in Ohio were interesting.
The first one, a workman’s comp issue was recalled. So many people spent a lot of time reading the full page of 6pt font when they didn’t need to.
The second issue was raising the minimum wage. It passed. It’s probably over due for the min wage to be raised, but I didn’t like how this was an ammendment to the constitution. I believe the constitution should be left untouched as much as possible. Additionally, the minimum wage is now tied to the inflation rate. I’m not convinced that that’s how it should be. Wages do not raise and lower exactly in harmony with the inflation rate. So, not being an economist, I don’t have enough data to know if this was a good idea. However, now that it is in the constitution, if it is a bad idea, it will be very hard to change.
The next election was the “Earn to Learn” initiative in which said, if you let two gambling cartels build their casinos in Cleveland and lock out all competitors for the next 16 year or so, they’ll give some proceeds to local schools. “Some good can come of this.” was the slogan. Which is just horrible. It told you explicitly that a lot of bad was already part and parcel to it. It’s like a line in the bond movie as a laser is about to insinerate him “Don’t worry Mr. Bond. Some good came come from this: that tie never did go well with that suit.”
The next two issues were smoking bans. The first one was a limited ban and failed. The second one banned smoking pretty much everywhere except in private dwellings and cars. In Ohio, there is no smoking in any place of busines and no smoking in any public area. This is definitely a curtailing of rights. However, as I’ve had asthma symptoms develop since moving to Ohio and its gotten much worse over the years, frankly, this will be a physical relief for me. Its now to the point where I can feel it in my chest if I have to speak with a co-worker about an issue. So, from a purely selfish aspect, this is much better for me. However, from a rights perspective, I think any business should be able to decide EITHER WAY if smoking should be allowed. I’ve weakened my conviction on this as my asthma symptoms have become more suseptable to specific brands of cigarettes. I heard comparison between smoking ban and setting a temperature at which dishes MUST be washed at a restaurant. Asthma has “spread” so much in Ohio that smoking can legitmately be considered a health issue more than a civil rights issue.
The next 5 or so issues were all lowering the school taxes by 0.01%. What!?!?! Who would want to do that? Well, it too had a hidden agenda. By lowering the taxes by an insignificant amount, there cannot be another initiative put forward for the next 5 years (I think) that could lower the taxes any further. So, this was a definate “The best defense is a good offense.” technique. It’s an interesting ploy. One person mentioned that they think that just having it on the ballot meant that it could not be readdressed within a certain time frame. Ahhhh Politics….
My kids had a discussion yesterday about voting:
Mom: “It’s election day!”
Son #1: “For who?”
Mom: “For everyone!”
Daughter: “I get to vote!”
Son #1: “No, you have to be 18, it’s like a rated R movie”
Daughter: “But there’s no violence…”
Mom: …contemplative silence…
I usually get in and get out of the voting place in 5 minutes. A little longer if I go in unprepared. for the issues. This time there were 13 other people in line and when I left there were still about 10 people in line.
I usually get in and out of there in < 5 minutes when I go in the morning. But Not today! Today I waited 25 minutes to get to the voting machine. That's not all that outrageous. Still yeesh...
There was a NY times story today on a webpage stating this:
Among the dozens of documents in English were Iraqi reports written in the 1990’s and in 2002 for United Nations inspectors in charge of making sure Iraq abandoned its unconventional arms programs after the Persian Gulf war. Experts say that at the time, Mr. Hussein’s scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away.
European diplomats said this week that some of those nuclear documents on the Web site were identical to the ones presented to the United Nations Security Council in late 2002, as America got ready to invade Iraq. But unlike those on the Web site, the papers given to the Security Council had been extensively edited, to remove sensitive information on unconventional arms.
The deletions, the diplomats said, had been done in consultation with the United States and other nuclear-weapons nations. Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which ran the nuclear part of the inspections, told the Security Council in late 2002 that the deletions were “consistent with the principle that proliferation-sensitive information should not be released.
was on a web located here: http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm. Interestingly, it has been taken down and wayback machine has nothing on it. Now the information was on the website back in April, but the NY Times brings it up today stating how it was irresponsible for this information to be allowed in the public. Perhaps that is so…
A couple related articles:
Today’s NY Times article
The Chicago Tribune’s take on the papers
A conservative blogger’s view on it: NY Times Story PROVES Saddam Was Making Nuclear Bomb
I’ve yet to judge the material, though I certainly can understand why it is being discussed this week. I’m interested in this from the geek aspect, because, to me, it is fascinating that this whole thing, which really just broke today, has already been covered over on WikiPedia. Wikipedia, a versioning tool, will keep all records of what was recorded here. Will wikipedia become a weapon in these political debates? What happen since wikipedia includes information that has been removed from a governmental site?
This is how Wikipedia summarizes the documents:
Continue reading Nuclear Bomb in Iraq in 2002 & Wikipedia as a WMD (Website for Message Distribution)
Grammar: Stuck VS Stuck.
The word has several meanings. I honestly did not see what Kerry meant by his odd remarks because I heard only one meaning of the word.
Even in American Sign Language, the word is unclear:
This is not a polital blog, but I am missing something here and maybe you all can help me. I hear a lot of talk about how the Kerry statement was just a joke, but I don’t understand how Kerry could not have expected this not to be taken as anything but a direct insult.
I started thinking on this more when a good friend of mine, from Florida, sent me this picture last night in an email:
This is in response to a recent Kerry speech in which he said:
“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and do your homework, and make an effort to be smart, uh, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
Continue reading John Kerry on Iraq? Soldiers are stupid, Vote Democrat or die, or Bush is stupid?
Hey! Look what I’ve just gotten for the first time:
I finally got myself an Alexa chart on Sunday! That means I’ve grown to be one of the top 100,000 sites on the web! Well, for Sunday at least. I’m not sure how long it will last. But considering there are now more than (put your pinky to your mouth when you say this) 100 Million websites out there, I’m glad for my little piece of the pie.
So here’s the big image for posterity’s sake:
http://www.thecodecave.com/images/dailyreach2.png
Cool!
Hey – My site is woefully low on reviews. One of the ways that I’ve given as how to say a quick “Thanks” is to write a review for me on Alexa/Amazon. So, if I’ve helped you out, please consider writing a quick review under your amazon account here.
Cheers all!
CNN Headlines reported this morning:
NASA has delayed tomorrow’s landing of the space shuttle Atlantis after engineers spotted a mystery object outside the shuttle; weather at the Florida landing site also is a concern.
In the CNN article “Mystery object delays shuttle landing”
“NASA engineers spotted the object at about 2:45 a.m EDT Tuesday with a video camera in the shuttle’s cargo bay.
The object, which circled the Earth in the same orbit as the shuttle and is of undetermined size […]
It’s something that we didn’t expect, but it’s something that we’re taking a real close look at,”
This has of course lead to rampant speculation around the office. The current leading theory is:
Continue reading “Mystery object” delays space shuttle landing…
This story was sent to you by: Dan
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Irwin’s life: A documentary about love, not crocs
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Sheryl P. Kurland
September 8, 2006
While grief over the tragic loss of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin reverberates around the world, the loss of his life hit home. Not because I believe in his conservation causes. (I do.) Not because I agree with his humanitarianism. (I do.) Not because I adore crocodiles. (I do.) It’s the two words I have written in parenthesis — I do — that tell the story. Irwin’s death fell on the cusp of my 17th wedding anniversary. And, as news interviews with those who knew him best reveal, Irwin was, above all, a committed husband to Terri, his only wife and wife of 14 years, and devoted father to his two children.
With our 50 percent divorce rate for first marriages, 67 percent for second marriages and 74 percent for third marriages, their love was a sight seldom seen these days.
Irwin’s life was not about the crocs. His antics with animals were merely a front that allowed us to peer into his heart. And how ironic it is that death befell him by the physical piercing of that extraordinary heart.
As I spend hours watching reruns of his most memorable shows on Animal Planet, I notice that the dynamics between Irwin and his creature friends in the wild pale in comparison to those between him and Terri. The couple shared an unspoken rhythm. Their eyes locked often, they were both filled with verve and gusto, they were both so alive. (Even his 2002 cornball movie Collision Course gushed with romance, though the two never shared a love scene.)
The Irwins lived as husband and wife were meant to be. Working together. Laughing together. Dreaming together. A role-model couple whose dreaming has been cut short. It should have lasted forever.
Fans tuned in for danger, close calls and his trademark beaming grin, but he unabashedly broke stride to take us up close and personal. Footage from their wedding showed a tearful Irwin as he and Terri exchanged “I do’s.” The newlyweds took us on their camping honeymoon to northern Australia. At the birth of their first baby, he wept. At the birth of their second baby, he wept more. (Note the order, marriage first, children second. Another fledgling trend.) Irwin showed how marriage and family life are connected to one’s larger sense of purpose in life.
Their role-model marriage is one in which we should revel. Yet, it is soon to be overshadowed by the erupting global mania over Vanity Fair’s new cover story heralding Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, unmarried, and the first public photographs of their newborn daughter. Consider the facts: This is Tom’s third young damsel to be anointed “the one.” His first, a marriage to “the one” terminated in less than three years. His second, a marriage to “the one” lasted less than 10 years. Any bets in Vegas how long TomKat will last? Will they tie the knot before Katie awakens from his rule and decides to take charge of herself? Their lavish, glamorized, glorified relationship is probably just one more notch in the bedpost of celebrity shams. Time will bear witness.
Indeed, Steve Irwin’s life and legacy remind us that life is not about fame and fortune. He leaves us with lessons about true love and human passion. Crikey, Mate, we’re gonna miss you!
I do.
Sheryl P. Kurland of Longwood is a speaker and author of “Everlasting Matrimony: Pearls Of Wisdom From Couples Married 50 Years Or More” — www.EverlastingMatrimony.com. Copyright (c) 2006, Orlando Sentinel | Get home delivery – up to 50% off
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I didn’t mean to go away, but it seems I went away anyway. Things were spiraling way to fast there for a little bit. When I created that yet-to-come mega post about the need to update to the latest version of WordPress (I may yet publish it in some form) it broke me out of the spiral and gave me a chance to breath.I’m now more caught up with things at work. We had a new release of our product and I needed to release new deployment tools. That’s done now. BTW I’m now using a tool a co-worker discovered called Eureka Log. It is an EXCELLENT product. It should be included in just about any Delphi program out there. I’m considering buying a personal copy so that I can use it on any thing I do out of office. Any time an error occurs in your program it allows the user to send you a full stack trace with screen shot via email or internet site. Then with the tarballed .ELF file you can see the full state of their machine at the time of the error, the active button/control and within the stack trace you can double click on each line and it will take you back to the appropriate line in the Delphi source code. Within an hour of its use, I squooshed four bugs that have been in the software for the last year. Perhaps its best feature is that it lets you know that an error has occurred. After all how can you fix something if you don’t get feedback that there is a problem?
Let’s see, what else… My home PC has been rebooting every 5-45 minutes, but I think I may have gotten a handle on that now. But that was not done before I ordered a whole new generation of computer. I wonder if I’ll notice a difference moving from a 333mhz FSB to a 2,000 mhz FSB based system – I haven’t figured out how to compare the CPU improvement yet. It’s a several generatation jump. More on that later – the boxes should arive today!
And things at home are coming more inline. We’ve replaced our old smelly couch with a not-as-old not-smelly couch. We emptied the garage and all its storage. We pressure washed away everything that was growing on the damp garage walls and threw out loads of stuff and reboxed everything else. So, the garage is now in much better condition.
I’d planned to complete everything on my to-do list this weekend but Thursday night I had a salad tasted really bad at the first bite. I’d actually set it aside, but twenty minutes later we were still watching the movie and I was starving at that point and tried it again. It didn’t taste too bad at that point. Boy, was that using my stomach and not my brain. I felt bad the next morning and was a walking zombie by noon. My holiday weekend was spent rolling around in bed having stomach cramps. Anytime I stood up I had extreme vertigo. It was nasty.
I got up and about some on Monday. I actually took a short walk with the kids in a local park – more on that later. Anyway… By 11pm Monday night I was feeling almost normal again and was ready for the weekend to start… Yeesh…
Anyway, I’ve finished two or three more books – I’ve got to get them up for review. I’ve also got three or for draft posts started and I’ve got the whole series Web Bots in Delphi articles I wanted to post. So, there should be pleanty of things coming up on the site as I get back into the swing of more frequent updates. Chow for now!
