December 31, 2004
Resolutions for 2005
So, resolutions of the past first. In 2000, my resolution was to have a girlfriend, which kinda worked. 2001 got more exciting, with some, mostly unfulfilled but lofty ideas, like figuring out direction, and getting a girlfriend (again). 2002 was a good year for resolutions, and I fulfilled them all. I didn't
resolve to get a girlfriend, but yet I had a good relationship nonetheless, which just goes to prove the old adage. 2003 resolutions were pretty lame, but I think only because I stopped mid-sentence, and can't seem to find the rest of the entry.
Last year's:
I've continued to let myself slide in Jamaica, and need to devote myself to walking more, and eating in a more healthy fashion, and at least regaining my Venezuelan physique, if not better. I must figure out the next step in my journey, as this current one finishes in August. I resolve to assist in regime change in the US this next election.
I managed 2k4 alright, resolution-wise, mostly because they weren't very strenuous. Thanks to K for the last one, even tho it didn't pan out. Let's look at 2k5:
--Grad School: Get in, keep focused, kick ass, try not to go into too deep of debt. I need to stay strongly focused on IT in development and resist the temptations of plan2-ing my grad school (scattershot approach to studies great for undergrad, not so much for grad), also resist the temptations of letting whichever program I end up in directing me overmuch.
--Geekliness: I need to upgrade my geek cred now that I'm back. Getting stuff working at Job will provide a lot of this, and re-vamping my contact tool to use perl:DBI and other fun tools will also help. Also, contact-list-wise, just getting all my people-info combined into one coherent document will be a great stride in organization.
--Activism: I have problems with being in the US, and I want to redirect this frustration into positive activism, both on the warm-fuzzy volunteering for good causes kind, and the sabre-rattling kind of doing protests, and continuing doing some political posts on the GriffJon.com blog, and trying, in my own small ways, to get people to look again at current events and consider what's going on in the world.
--Travel: Not a likelihood for 2k5, but I want to maintain it as an ideal.
--Live a good life: Especially over the next few months, I need to combine saving money, being good with the job, and living healthily, and simply. I need to catch myself and maintain my Peace Corps money sensibilities and frugalities -- PC/J was good with money, if you directed carefully what you splurged on, and lived simply in other areas. I hope to continue this in Austin and beyond. Stuff weighs you down, and until you're ready to decide on a place for more than just a few years, it hinders your ability to move about, and moving about has been so nice to me the past few years.
--Figure out things.
Posted by griffjon at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)
December 25, 2004
UNDP report being muddled?
Quoth the BBC:
The BBC's Heba Saleh in Cairo says this year's report is the third in a much-acclaimed series of studies commissioned by the UNDP.The reports, she says, are the work of dozens of independent Arab scholars who dissected their own societies to present a frank and comprehensive picture of their weaknesses and failings.
US state department spokesman Tom Casey said: "We have not seen a draft of the forthcoming Arab Human Development report. We have not urged deferral or postponement of the report, as has been alleged."
A UNDP statement said the report was in the "final stages of preparation".
It went on: "While at different times, concerns have been raised by some governments about the content of the forthcoming report, no formal discussions on editorial content have taken place, no government has asked for their suppression."
Press reports that Washington had threatened to cut future funding for UNDP over the report "are inaccurate," it added.
Posted by griffjon at 08:30 PM | Comments (0)
December 24, 2004
Kitten/Xmas therapy
Posted by griffjon at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)
Merry Whatever-the-fuck
Bill O'Reilly has ruined my holiday season. Traditionally, I've laid down my atheism and happily participated in Christmas traditions, particularly the gift-giving and general holiday cheer of friendlinessand brotherhood. There's something nice about a holiday that's all about, in these modern times, getting along and giving things to people.
But O'Reilly is on this rampage (Salon.com article) about people trying to be, of all things, tolerant of other religions and saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." First off, holiday comes from "Holy Day" -- not exactly secular that, but it at least manages to include people celebrating other holy days in December, like, oh, Chanukkah, Solstice celebrations, heck, even Kwanzaa. Thing is, it's a popular time of the year to celebrate. In the North, you're now past the halfway point of winter, in the South, you're harvesting your crops.
If you want to get down to the nitty-gritty, Christmas lost its Christianity a long, long time ago. Do a bit of searching on the Christmas tree, yule, and the winter solstice and I'm sure "yule" find a lot of surprising things about what you thought were good Christian traditions. here's some traditions to start off with.
At least he's revealed himself fully as an intolerant, anti-semetic right-wing-nut, and some people are calling him on it:
But during his Dec. 3 radio show, O'Reilly got more specific. When a caller identified himself as Jewish and began to complain about "the secularization of Jews and about Christmas going into schools," O'Reilly shot back that "overwhelmingly, America is Christian. And the holiday is a federal holiday honoring the philosopher Jesus. So, you don't wanna hear about it? Impossible. And that is an affront to the majority. You know, the majority can be insulted, too. And that's what this anti-Christmas thing is all about."At one point, O'Reilly told the caller, "Come on, if you are really offended, you gotta go to Israel then." (Media Matters for America, a liberal media monitoring organization, quickly posted transcripts from the radio show.) "It was offensive and over the top," says Steven Freeman, associate director of the civil liberties division at the Anti-Defamation League, a leading Jewish civil rights organization.
Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., is circulating a letter among colleagues on the Hill that urges O'Reilly to apologize for his remarks. "By suggesting that Jews do not have a place in American society unless they accept without comment its 'predominantly Christian' nature, you are brushing aside the basic freedoms guaranteed to all by our Constitution," she writes. Lowey tells Salon, "Bill O'Reilly's comments were the tip of the iceberg from some conservative news outlets that are suggesting minorities should keep quiet or leave the country. It's really dangerous and I'd hope wiser heads would understand this and cease and desist."
"O'Reilly crossed the line to overt anti-Semitism," adds Michael Lerner, head of the progressive Jewish organization Tikkun. "He's trying to tell his audience that Jews have no legitimate role in public life except as second-class citizens."
If anything is destroying Christmas, it's crass commercialism driving this buying frenzy inspiring people to trample each other on the day-after-thanksgiving shopping day. Here's a concept -- give donations to charities in the names of everyone on your gift list, or make crafts, or just simply enjoy each others' company this holiday season, and celebrate nothing more or less than your friends and family. But really, be happy, and be kind to others, regardless of their race, creed or color (red or blue).
Posted by griffjon at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2004
The Rapture
I had a fantastic idea for a novel, so lemme write it down here before I forget it. In the vein of "Left Behind", my novel begins with the end -- all the True Believers and Fanatics are taken straight up into Heaven, leaving us atheists and secular humanist types stuck down on Earth. Maybe the devil comes up and takes his due of the murderers, politicians, and other hard-core sinners, maybe not.
Within weeks, the left-overs on Earth begin to transform the Earth into its own Paradise. So it turns out that there was some truth to a lot of the different varying religions, and some lies. There always was just One True God, but maybe it's a Gnostic-type thing, where the "God" is really just some gone-made deity.
Anyway, with all the fanatics from all the religions gone, war dies down, new life is breathed into worldwide environmental protection (this is - seriously - all we got, we better fix it up nice!). Better yet, the population problem is helped out, and the problem of SUVs is solved (turns out, most SUV owners are borderline fanatics!). Since GW Bush is obviously raptured up, we have to immediately hold a new election, and it's a tight run-off between the Green Party candidate and the Democrat candidate.
And so on. I'm thinking a trilogy.
(apologies to my friends who manage to be religious and not hypocrites, which is I think, all my friends who are religious, even tho it seems to be such a small percentage of religious people in general)
Posted by griffjon at 07:24 PM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2004
If we don't have a fair voting system, we don't have a democracy
The Daily KOS posts links and graphics driving home the point that this was not an election, it was a ruse.
Quoting:
In battleground states such as Florida and Ohio, obviously, concerted efforts were underway before and during election day to undermine Democratic turnout as much as possible. What is most telling about these various efforts is how similar they were in various states; a perusal of both Ohio and Florida via voteprotect.org shows surprising consistency among some types of complaints.Among the more common reports in both states:
* Phone calls and flyers telling voters that their polling places had changed, when in fact they had not. Other reports cited people standing outside the polling places themselves, falsely redirecting some voters to other precincts.
* Intimidation efforts (such as anonymously distributed flyers) aimed directly at the minority community, implying for example that minority voters would be scrutinized for illegal activities if they were to vote.
* Precinct "observers" challenging voters for unnecessary identification and being generally disruptive, especially towards minority voters. In Florida, some Republican observers even carried papers with pictures of voters who were to be challenged; in Ohio, there is a sketchy report of two black voters in Shaker Heights being arrested after being singled out as having active warrants by election "challengers". Certainly, if nothing else, unnecessary ID challenges helped contribute to long lines in urban polling places.
* Longtime voters finding themselves inexplicably removed from the voting rolls, and having to cast provisional ballots, as a result of state "purging" of the rolls. In some areas, the "affidavit" lines for casting provisional, HAVA-required ballots were themselves an additional hour long, or longer, in addition to whatever time the voter had already spent in the original precinct lines; needless to say, the reports are filled with instances of voters turning away without voting.
The Cuyahoga county reports from voteprotect.org, especially, read like a (dark) comedy of errors; one would surmise, from reading the reports, that this particular county had never before successfully conducted an election. Besides the endemic reports of very long lines and generally glacial pace of voting, which from reports appears to have been a problem even in the morning hours, especially noteworthy are reports from several precincts of minority voters being asked for ID, while white voters were allowed to vote unchallenged.
Posted by griffjon at 03:36 PM | Comments (0)
Not Ghana Do it
GeekCorps,
I'm sorry to say that I'm just not ready to head back out into the field right now. I've spent the past three years now out, and have had endless difficulties in managing the grad school application process, (resulting in having to do it again for next fall) and I just need some stateside time to make sure my graduate school application process this time around goes through, loans/grants/scholarships work out, and being available for grad school interviews.
It's an amazing opportunity, and I've gotten very little sleep the past few nights debating endlessly with myself on it, but the scales are tipped, ever so slightly, with getting things in order here, to smooth out the next few years of my life.
I realize this puts you and MISTOWA in a tight spot. To mitigate this as much as I can, I would be more than happy to offer whatever technical support via the Internet that I am able to do, from Q&A to suggestions of web design tools and techniques, to even creation of templates, graphics, etc. If their web server setup permits it, I can log in from here and help tweak things around, all as a pure volunteer, and explain what I do to enable skills transfer and sustainability.
And, 3 months or so down the line, after grad school acceptances, funding status, loan requests and whatnot are all squared away, if there's still need on this or other projects, I'd love to talk again.
Regards,
Jon
Posted by griffjon at 01:13 PM | Comments (0)
What I want
Is to build and hide inside a good couch-pillow fortress. It's snowing outside and I remain undecided about Ghana/Austin.
We told you this would happen if you didn't properly plastic-wrap and tape your cushion-fort
Posted by griffjon at 09:02 AM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2004
Pro/Ghana take 2
I keep maing a decision, and then changing my mind. I'm choosing between a complete unknown and a partially-unknown.
I've spent a while thinking pro-Austin, and was convinced that Ghana was the obvious choice. I've spent the past 2 days planning to go to Ghana, and am having serious second thoughts about it. A lot of it boils down to plain whineyness -- I'm not ready to go back to being a volunteer again. I like ubiquitous Internet. I like being able to walk with my laptop and not fear of having it stolen. Hell, I like being able to walk around and not be in fear of a hold-up. I like not sweating constantly. I like the casual inherent wealth of Austin (albeit, that's comparitive to my previous living situation).
But does this wimpyness mean that I'm not cut out for development work? Does it destroy the "me" that I've been constructing? Or am I just fucking tired of the shit I went through in Jamaica, and fearful that returning to another formerly British post-colonial nation with a huge history of slave-trade would be another Jamaica? I do not want to have to argue with some a-hole who blocks my cell phone number about whether my water is turned off or not on a daily basis. I've been there, it wasn't fun.
And, of course, most international development workers I knew in Jamaica got fat money compared to the local economy, live in nice places with big water tanks, had cars, AC, etc. etc. etc. so maybe these I'm-not-worthy worries are pointless anyway.
That being said, I'd prolly be living it a hotel there, with AC is likely, with a lot more money than the PCVs in the area get.
I want to have done it, but I don't know about wanting to do it. Historically, every decision that is between "new experience" and anything else, the right choice is the new experience. Also, whenever I suck it up and jump in to something, I do well and have a fine time of it. But inexplicably the more times I do this, the harder it becomes to keep doing it.
| Ghana | Austin | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| PRO | CON | PRO | CON |
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I realize a few of those con-Ghana/pro-Austin are terribly bourgeoisie. In the case of the Embassy staff comment, I did compare it to Jamaica responses, which were scarily enough more positive. My only reply is that I've dealt with worse, for two years, and have no immediate interest in having to deal with it more.
Safety comparisons: A lot of people have given me crap about my potentially skewed view of safety in the States. Let me give some examples of why this is total BS: open coat racks (i.e. no attendant) -- they exist, and aren't totally ransacked. Also, at a club in Boston, I inadvertently left 2 pair of nice gloves and a beautiful scarf and a hat on a bench (they fell out of the bundle of junk I was compiling to check). I disappeared to a completely different part of the club, danced for a while, came back, and not only were they still sitting on the bench in this crowded club, someone had folded the damn scarf.
Posted by griffjon at 09:11 PM | Comments (0)
Turn of phrase
I popped this out in a discussion over the torture post. See it in context at the LJ mirror.
"I refuse to fight with gloves on against people wearing brass knuckles."
Posted by griffjon at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)
I think they broke Irony
From the BBC:
A large figure 75 is picked out in neon, inside a large circle, in reference to the number of Cuban dissidents jailed last year.After complaining to Mr Cason, Cuban officials set up a billboard including images of abused Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, and a swastika.
The US diplomat said last week that any action taken by Cuba against US personnel or the US mission in Havana would not affect his government's determination to draw attention to human rights.
Yeah, 'cause we're certainly in a position to make a fuss about human rights, with our huge Iraqi civilian death and injury toll, and what with Bush ordering torture on POWs and all. The fact that this diplomat can say this from across the street of the Abu Ghraib billboard indicated a level of gall I didn't know was possible.
Posted by griffjon at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)
Investigate the vote!
Also, see MoveOn.org's Investigate the Vote petition.
I wrote:
I believe that the unique repetition of statistical differences between exit polls and results in e-voting districts, as detailed in the Harper's Magazine, Jan 2005 edition, is the bail of hay that breaks the camel's back, when you combine it with the political motivations of the private companies providing e-voting machines.
With the state of computer security constantly in question, evoting without physical audit trails and independent scruitiny of the systems and source code is more of a threat to our Democracy than any terrorist -- it now takes one motivated hacker to change election results...
Posted by griffjon at 02:59 PM | Comments (0)
Executive Order for Torture
What kind of "Christian" do we have in the Presidential office who not only overlooks ongoing torture, but indeed ordered it? You can claim to be on God's side all you want, but if you're going to profess to be a Christian, shouldn't you follow the rules your God has laid down, in stone no less?
Jesus proclaims liberty to the captives and freedom to the oppressed, and lists concern for the prisoner among the issues for judgement (Matthew 25:35-40).
We should be concerned about the conditions in which prisoners are held and the treatement they receive (Hebrews 13:3).
The ACLU had to file a lawsuit to obtain these documents, as the government "failed" to respond to their Freedom of Information Act for them.
To quote the ACLU's press release:
NEW YORK -- A document released for the first time today by the American Civil Liberties Union suggests that President Bush issued an Executive Order authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation methods against detainees in Iraq. Also released by the ACLU today are a slew of other records including a December 2003 FBI e-mail that characterizes methods used by the Defense Department as "torture" and a June 2004 "Urgent Report" to the Director of the FBI that raises concerns that abuse of detainees is being covered up."These documents raise grave questions about where the blame for widespread detainee abuse ultimately rests," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "Top government officials can no longer hide from public scrutiny by pointing the finger at a few low-ranking soldiers."
...
Another e-mail, dated December 2003, describes an incident in which Defense Department interrogators at Guantánamo Bay impersonated FBI agents while using "torture techniques" against a detainee. The e-mail concludes "If this detainee is ever released or his story made public in any way, DOD interrogators will not be held accountable because these torture techniques were done [sic] the 'FBI' interrogators. The FBI will [sic] left holding the bag before the public."
The document also says that no "intelligence of a threat neutralization nature" was garnered by the "FBI" interrogation, and that the FBI’s Criminal Investigation Task Force (CITF) believes that the Defense Department's actions have destroyed any chance of prosecuting the detainee. The e-mail's author writes that he or she is documenting the incident "in order to protect the FBI."
"The methods that the Defense Department has adopted are illegal, immoral, and counterproductive," said ACLU staff attorney Jameel Jaffer. "It is astounding that these methods appear to have been adopted as a matter of policy by the highest levels of government."
...
* Another FBI agent's account of interrogations at Guantánamo in which detainees were shackled hand and foot in a fetal position on the floor. The agent states that the detainees were kept in that position for 18 to 24 hours at a time and most had "urinated or defacated [sic]" on themselves. On one occasion, the agent reports having seen a detainee left in an unventilated, non-air conditioned room at a temperature "probably well over a hundred degrees." The agent notes: "The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his own hair out throughout the night." (Aug. 2, 2004)
I've archived a set of the documents: ACLU FOIA archive on torture.
What kind of animals have we become? Not just those perpetrating these horrendous acts of torture, not just those condoning it, not even just Bush ordering it -- but us. We're sitting here.
I just sent an email too McCain, in the hope that his unfortunate experiences as a POW himself, and his position in the Republican party, could provide a voice of reason from within the GOP. Read on for the text of the letter...
Senator McCain,
I have always respected your independent view as a traditional conservative, and your impressive history of service to our country.
I am very interested in your feelings on the recent ACLU discovery of possible executive orders authorizing the use of inhumane torture against our POWs (http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17216&c=206), and the ongoing support of not abiding by the Geneva Conventions as seen in Bush's pending appointment of Gonzales to the Secretary of State?
It seems to me that when the US, the strongest (by far) military power in the world, and (formerly, at least) respected Democracy, is using methods of torture against captives in extra-judicial settings, we have absolutely no moral ground to stand on when we request or even expect humane treatment of our soldiers and American POWs by their captors.
I beg of you, as a prominent Republican, to try and persuade your fellow congressmen and women to come out against the use of such inhumane treatment of our captives, for the sake of common moral decency if not for the sake of our current and future American POWs.
I am sure you, having been the victim of torture as a POW, understand this issue in a way I hope to never know.
Posted by griffjon at 02:18 PM | Comments (0)
December 20, 2004
Further Ghana Encouragement
From the people in-country:
They all will be provided Internet access at the place of work and can arrange with IFDC for Internet at their residence for home-based work. As to details on life in Ghana, they should try Lonely Planet or Ghana-based websites.We can use Jon as long as he cares to stay - there will be plenty of work for him to do! Just let us know when he wants to be fielded in January.
Man. I might have to go. The stipend is 600/month plus up to 45/night for housing (most of their volunteers stay in hotels). I'm trying to find some Cost Of Living figures for Accra.
Posted by griffjon at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)
BlogSpam
I got my first BlogSpam comment today. As MT is not well-defended against this sort of crap, I've disabled commenting unless you register with TypeKey. For now, even those are moderated, to see if I get swamped with faked TK account spammers, etc., but hopefully I'll turn down in a bit.
Of course, most of the comments that would be attracted to the blog anyhow get posted on the LJ mirror of (most of) the content, so *shrug*
Posted by griffjon at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2004
14 Features of Facism
14 Features of Facism, by SecularHumanism.org. Hm. Looks.... a lot like home, right about now.
Seen at BOP, whose XML feed won't work for me.
Posted by griffjon at 08:38 PM | Comments (0)
Ghana (Continued)
I thought I'd made a decsion on Ghana, but nooooo, they have to be all flexible and shit. They're OK with waiting until mid-January for me to head out there (presuming I will be in dialog with the people who've begun work on the project). There's an inital deadline in Feb/Mar for some form of the website to be live and working, but the project could extend through another few months, and realistically, is likely to not be a done deal in ~ 1 month. It's a 3-part project for which I'll be the web guy, there's also a DB part of it (any DB programmers wanna go to Ghana this Spring? They're lookin), and a V/Sat person to link remote databases to the website via sat-links.
Here's their initial project description:
The MISTOWA project resource center will create a portal web site that links the public to producer organizations, trader organizations, regional market information systems, and other important websites throughout the region in order to increase regional trade. Marketing information, prices, publications, market news, directories, information on grades and standards, transport road conditions, credit options, etc will be available through the MISTOWA Resource Center website. The RATIN system in East Africa is a good example of the model that the MISTOWA Resource Center will follow, www.ratin.net.
I need a pro/con list I think:
| Ghana | Austin | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| PRO | CON | PRO | CON |
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OK, so, the Ghana-Pro list is pretty long. I also realize that I'm in the enviable postition of choosing between two different jobs with different (and unique) benefits.
Posted by griffjon at 05:20 PM | Comments (0)
Go FireFox!
It's not real blog unless I cover Open Source Software, too.
Slashdot this morning that not only did FireFox (the alternative to Internet Explorer that kicks ass) run a full 2-page ad in the NYT, today they got a very favorable article
With Firefox, open-source software moves from back-office obscurity to your home, and to your parents', too. (Your children in college are already using it.) It is polished, as easy to use as Internet Explorer and, most compelling, much better defended against viruses, worms and snoops.
Microsoft has always viewed Internet Explorer's tight integration with Windows to be an attractive feature. That, however, was before security became the unmet need of the day. Firefox sits lightly on top of Windows, in a separation from the underlying operating system that the Mozilla Foundation's president, Mitchell Baker, calls a "natural defense."
Seriously, any of you out there who are still using IE, just stop, it's not safe, and it is giving you a horrible experience, even if you don't realize it. Make the switch. Firefox imports EVERYTHING -- bookmarks, password, history, it's all there. Plugins are a snap. IT's so, so much better than what you're used to.
Posted by griffjon at 08:40 AM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2004
Friday Kitten Therapy
In the tradition of getting beyond the overwhelmingly depressing news of the world on Fridays (see BobHarris.com and Pudu Fridays[1], here's a cute picture of two of my cats from Jamaica:
Now isn't that cute?
1) - I even added a poem to this week's pudublog:
No one can do
The voodoo
Like you do
But Not True!
Here's a clue:
The pudu...
Thank you, that's all.
Posted by griffjon at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)
Web Logs -- the server kind.
So, year-end reviews of my web traffic for 2k4 are a bit scarier than usual. The US Military comes in at #5, with 5k pageviews, 10k hits (inclusive of non-html things like stylesheets, images, scripts). .US holds strong at #13 on the charts, .gov at #27 (230 pages) and .arpa (?!) hangs in a lot lower down with 67 pageviews. the .mil opens up into lots of NIPRNet hits, and some army, navy, and airforce. It's my optimistic hope that they're all surfing the old role-playing game site for ShadowRun that is still hosted here, as it seems to be a favorite among military types.
I'm not paranoid, but I'm working on it.
Posted by griffjon at 12:27 AM | Comments (0)
Next: Internment camps? (one step closer to facism)
From ABC News:
Nearly half of all Americans believe the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim Americans, according to a nationwide poll.The survey conducted by Cornell University also found that Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more apt to support curtailing Muslims' civil liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious.
...
The survey showed that 27 percent of respondents supported requiring all Muslim Americans to register where they lived with the federal government. Twenty-two percent favored racial profiling to identify potential terrorist threats. And 29 percent thought undercover agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer organizations to keep tabs on their activities and fund-raising.
...One nation, except for them other folks, with liberty and justice for rich white people.
Remind me, please, that when we have an Anti-Islam Kristallnacht, it's seriously time to go very, very far away. We CAN learn from history, and we can chose not to be the permissive populace.
Posted by griffjon at 12:08 AM | Comments (0)
December 17, 2004
Great quote
"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the
leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being
attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and
exposing the country to greater danger."
Quote by Herman Goering, at the Nuremberg trials
Posted by griffjon at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)
The Cost of the War
The Center for American Progress has a very interesting map of the cost of the war, broken down by state, and compared to spending on domestic issues such as homeland security and education. For example -- Texas contributed 11.5 Billion to the Iraq war, and has received about 4B split between education and security. And Texas has a decent ratio! Washington spent 4B, and got just over 400M for both programs.
Posted by griffjon at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)
G'night Bill
NOW, with Bill Moyer will no longer be with the esteemed Mr. Moyer, who is joining the exodus of journalists in the post-election doldrums. Walk good, Mr. Moyer, we'll miss your fair and balanced look at those who can only claim to be fair and balanced.
I worry about what's left of our Democracy. I really do. We're fighting an unending war, there is little if any protection of our most private sanctuaries (the FBI can take your computer records (i.e. your hard drive), your library records, credit card records -- all without even a subpoena), and it's all being done in the name of "patriotism." Sorry, when did patriotism mean burning the Consitution??
Posted by griffjon at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)
Cuba = (Balls + Irony)
Cuba, with its historical ballsiness, has erected a huge billboard with photos of Abu Ghraib torture scenes and a huge swastika labeled "Made in the USA." They put it up across the street from the U.S. Interest Section's offices.
Classy? No. Ballsy? Yes. Appropriate? Hells yes.
Apparently, this is in response to the US Missions Xmas decorations, which included a "75" in reference to Cuban dissidents jailed by their own government. Cuba's not such a big fan of free speech, but, we're not in a position to critizie them, as Wayne Smith, who served as US Mission head in Cuba under both Carter and Reagan, pointed out.
(Seen at BoingBoing)
Posted by griffjon at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)
Turning down Ghana
If only it were a bit different...
To: GeekCorpsThe work I have set up in Austin is very time sensitive, and will take be through until I start graduate school, and turning it down would burn a contact a bit. I'd love to join GeekCorps for Ghana, but I need to keep myself occupied without eating away at savings until at least June/July 2k5, as grad school will no doubt take care of my savings as-is. Even under the most ideal of circumstances, I'd be unable to fly out before Jan 15 due to existing commitments. I don't feel that the MISTOWA project, with such a close deadline, will work with my timeframe. If it had a longer scope, or was less time-sensitive in its starting date, it's an excellent opportunity that I would jump on -- for example, if I could work at the Austin contract through until it is able to be passed on in May or so, and then do two months in Ghana, that would be excellent, and please let me know if this becomes the case. I realize nevertheless that with funding being as it is, IESC/GC is probably not so flexible with its projects (I worked closely with USAID during my PC stint, and realize the funding 'spurts' that occur).
I hope you are able to complete this position, and wish I had a different schedule with contracts here such that I could be the person to fill it.
Please keep me in the loop for further contracts, as I expect my schedule to change rather often over the next year.
Best of luck and happy holidays,
Jon Camfield
RPCV, Kingston Jamaica 2002-04, IT Adviser/Webmaster, Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture
Posted by griffjon at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2004
So, Ghana...
I chatted with the IESC/GeekCorps rep tonight, and so here's the dealio. They need this like fast, they got screwed by funding vs deadline timing, so it'd be prolly 2, maybe 3 months in the field (Accra, Ghana) starting basically ASAP. This would be great... if I didn't have a good-paying job waiting for me in Austin, also ASAP. If I didn't have anything in Austin, it would be no loss, but to turn down this job (and in doing so, probably burn this contact a bit), I open up a problem for what happens at the end of the GC assignment, in March or so, at which point I won't have yet heard back from grad schools for sure yet.
It's also gone a lot higher level -- it's closely entwined with USAID nowadays, which is fine, but the new "owners" of GeekCorps are focused less on the young geek crowd and more on the executive/professional crowd, so the vaunted GeekHalla is gone, and the 'volunteers' get put up in hotels and such.
Which would prolly mean A/C, which I'd like, but it also just doesn't sound anywhere near as friendly and fun as the http://geekhalla.org crowd seemed.
I ponder. Opinions welcomed.
And yes, I realize that I'm bitching about the choice between a good-paying job in Austin for which I extended almost no effort to get for myself, or being put up in a hotel in a foreign country for 2 months to do web work with a local business. It's not a real blog unless you whine and moan!
Posted by griffjon at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2004
More US v Human Rights
As reported by the BBC, "It's time for the United States to come clean about crimes committed by US forces in Afghanistan," -- Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch.
I mean, how long does it take for the world to realize the the current American regime (arguably, every American regime, the Bushies are just more abrasive and less subtle about it) does not apply the rule of law to itself.
We like making rules, but not following them.
Posted by griffjon at 10:23 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2004
Crossroads
(Warning: this is yet another in the whining-about-the-future series, not a political post)
Caveat -- I know that, as always before, when it comes time to just jump the fuck in and deal with it, I will pull through, and probably excel in the process. I do best when I jump in and have to deal. If I am in a situation where I can avoid dealing with crap, I will.
That being said, I maintain that part of this ability is because I worry and over-prepare for things beforehand, which is the mode I'm currently in. My general mood is also being heavily influenced by my love for keeping options open, my wanderlust, my fears of the person I was and could again become in Austin, and a whole bevy of other concerns.
The current working plan is to occupy myself for the next few months, working and living in Austin, making as much money as I can (to save) while here. Obvious sub-goals are to maintain or become more fit, and not fail to enjoy life in the whole process. How many months depends heavily on which schools accept me. If one of the DC area schools accepts (and has money) for me, I will try to pick up and move there ASAP and get a job in DC through into the school year, and then move it to part-time or somesuch. If MIT accepts me, I'll prolly stay in Austin a bit longer, and then move up there a few months beforehand to find a place to live and try to ease my way in to new skills which I'll need to have down (before the massive train of MIT whomps me a good one). If Washington/Evans School, I'm not sure -- I don't know much about the area, so I'll ask people who do. Also, it depends on the monies. If it's UT, then, well, *shrug* not much to do, huh? Depending on UT monies/jobs/etc., I might take a short vacation before starting up there (by vacation, I mean going far away, not doing nothing in Austin).
This is all predicated on getting into a grad school, and getting sufficient funding that I don't have to take on astronomical debt. I'm accepting of the fact that debt will most likely be accrued, but there's a big difference in 10-20k or 60-80k, especially if I'm going to be doing consulting / IT work in development projects -- they don't pay outstanding amounts.
This weekend I am laying the groundwork for Austin -- I found a place to stay for a bit, it's "Das Haus" as known to many of my friends, it's an old, outwardly-delapidated house in WC (West Campus). It's pricey for the amenities, but cheap for WC, and if I do end up at UT, it's an ideal location. It's close to some grocery supplies, etc. It also is close to most of the major bus routes for town, including a route to get me to the second important part of living in Austin, a job, which I think I have a solid lead on, I'm going for an informal interview/introduction to the work this afternoon.
I won't have a car, and I'll be generally minimizing my living expenses -- Peace Corps style, I'll maximize on things that are most important to me which don't incur big costs. As la_chispa refers to it, poorgeoisie. Hey, it's actually a good way to live.
I've kinda ignored, thus far, the concerns of my introduction -- Austin, wanderlust, options, and more. I think I can deal with the me-in-Austin effect, by the mental trick of me-in-a-totally-different-scene in Austin. I'm not a college student with support of my parents and discretionary income, I'm not a dot-com whizkid with mad monies, I'm not a freelance contract shorttimer, I'm a soon-to-be grad student, living simply. Done. Options-open, well, is a constant mental battle in me, and that wouldn't change no matter where I go, what I do, it's just me.
Now, the wanderlust, tho, that's a bitch. Coming back to Austin is a dangerous thing. Austin is a nice place. It's a mini-Blue state, it's chock full of my friends, random fun people, cool things, excellent weather, etc etc. But I'm not ready to call it home, or settle. Not that moving back means that, but it took the dot-com crash to shake me out of the Austin-trance last time around, and that was 6.5 years (4 at UT, OK, but still). It's a black hole in and of itself.
So, I re-applied for GeekCorps during this whole Grad school application process. It was a fun diversion from the mindsucking statements of purpose. I got a few emails from them in their hopes that I spoke French (they remain mostly in Africa). While I hope to learn French, I don't really know it at all right now. But then, I got an email (and subsequently have a phone interview Wednesday) for a webhead position in Ghana for 4-5 months starting in January. From my initial peekings into the workings of their Ghana program and such, I can only say this is a temptation. It's only 5 months, I can handle 5 months, and it'd be Something Completely Different! Not that sub-saharan Africa is somewhere that was on my list of places to go, but damn, I bet it'd be interesting, and not-bad timing. The main downside would be I wouldn't earn any money, and could potentially spend a bit of what I already have. But experience-wise, man...
Posted by griffjon at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)
December 09, 2004
NZ and civil unions
New Zealand had a good idea on civil unions, making them for everyone -- even heterosexual couples who didn't want to "marry," but still needed/deserved civil union status for children, medical coverage, and so on, following a few EU countries.
Do the states like Vermont and Mass. with civil unions for homosexuals enable these things for heterosexuals? Maybe it'd be a good tactic to take, if not. It then becomes an issue not about Leviticus (not the killing people who cook on Sunday part, the part about homosexuality), but rights, the well-being children, and medical coverage.
Posted by griffjon at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)
Disconnect
By now, you've all seen and heard or read Spc. Thomas Wilson of the 278th Regimental Combat Team complain to Rummy "We're digging pieces of rusted scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass that's already been shot up, dropped, busted… picking the best out of this scrap to put onto our vehicles to take into combat. We do not have proper armourment vehicles to carry with us north."
The amusing part of the story is that the Pentagon was evidentially surprised by the tools used by the insurgents. IEDs, you know. High tech "Improvised Explosive Devices."
Huh? The most well-funded military (beating the combined defense spending of the next top three nations) is not equipped/prepared to deal with homemade bombs?
The sad part of the story, however, is commentary from Spc. Wilson's wife:
"It's all about duty, and he felt compelled to be over there," Wilson said, adding that both she and her ex-husband voted for President Bush in November and support him "100 percent."
Interesting side-note, the Dallas Morning News print edition, where I first found this, inserted this fact into the AP story, but didn't add it to their online edition of the same story. I found it finally at Access N. Georgia.
Part of me really just wants to say to these people -- WTF did you expect? Honestly? That Bush would fix things? He caused this mess, and isn't about to be able to undo it all. He's not capable, and for sure Rummy isn't, and who, who was the only Cabinet member (so far) asked to come back?
Posted by griffjon at 09:27 AM | Comments (0)
December 08, 2004
What you say?
For the conspiracy theorists among us, here's a great timeline.
Late Edition, last weekend - Musharraf calls the Iraq war a mistake, and says that we are less safe than before.
Immediately afterwards, the Pakistani Gov't issues a "...but he didn't really mean it like that" statement (Quoth John Stewart, "Oh, shit!")
Yesterday, security papers detailing his UK visit were found in the street, just hours before he was scheduled to land. They disclosed security info about his hotel and movements in London.
I'm sure Richard Clarke and his wife are experiencing a bit of deja-vu.
Posted by griffjon at 09:17 PM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2004
Jam Echelon 2k4
I thought it was time to bring back my old X-Jam-Echelon header, as well as a few other fun X-headers, but it turns out that this is not as easy in Thunderbird as you'd think.
OK, actually, it's pretty darned easy, but finding out how to do it is less than easy. It took me a good 30 minutes to google together an answer for this, so to save others the hassle: http://ilias.ca/Xnoarchive.html has the best info. Basically, load up your prefs.js in your application data folder, and find the id# for the account you want to tag on x-headers for, then create (or modify) the plain text file user.js in the same dir, and add one line with aliases for each header you want to add in, for example:
user_pref("mail.identity.id2.headers", "noarchive,echelon,pgp-link,pgp-fingerprint");
Then, make a line for each of those with the actual header, for example:
user_pref("mail.identity.id2.header.noarchive", "X-No-Archive: yes");
or perhaps:
user_pref("mail.identity.id2.header.freedom",
"X-Civil-Liberties: ACLU 1st amendment freedom of speech protest
flashmob peaceful assembly nationwide free speech zone civil
disobedience");
user_pref("mail.identity.id2.header.echelon",
"X-Jam-Echelon2k4: spies like you iraq terror bomb iran korea
pakistan nuclear kahn nigeria yellowcake UN bush conspiracy lies regime change domestic revolution");
More fun tips at Texturizer, with good links on doing the steps above - http://texturizer.net/thunderbird/tips.html
BTW -- what ever happened to Echelon? It disappeared from the news, but evidentially it (still) has some pretty kickass hardware.
Posted by griffjon at 07:44 PM | Comments (0)
December 01, 2004
IMPEACH THIS BASTARD
I'm overwhelmed. This is, continues to be, beyond the fucking pale. Why have no pol called for impeachment? It's not like there's a lack of reasons.
Posted by griffjon at 07:43 PM | Comments (0)
Torture in Gitmo
From the NYT:
The finding that the handling of prisoners detained and interrogated at Guantanamo amounted to torture came after a visit by a Red Cross inspection team that spent most of last June in Guantánamo.The [Red Cross International] team of humanitarian workers, which included experienced medical personnel, also asserted that some doctors and other medical workers at Guantanamo were participating in planning for interrogations, in what the report called "a flagrant violation of medical ethics."
Posted by griffjon at 07:41 PM | Comments (2)
Let's get this straight
Let's get a few words out here. Torture. War. Vote Fraud. Lies. Incompetence. Ignorance. Unconstitutionality. Anti-freedom. Anti-Civil Liberties. Anti-family.
These are the values that Bush stands for. I hope you Bush supporters are enjoying it. I find it absolutely abhorrent that Bush has not been impeached and arrested for his flaunting of the Geneva Conventions, dramatically unconstitutional "free speech zones" and other methods of squelching opposition, the destruction of the education system (why, WHY are we modeling the national system after Texas, who comes in second-to-LAST (thanks, Mississippi)?), the removal of funding from any pro-family group that considers abortion an option? LOOK AT THE FACTS, people! Abstinence-only programs are proven to backfire in terms of teenage pregnancy and STD rates.
We are living a nightmare. I hope in our thrashing about, we don't hit any of our neighbors too hard.
Posted by griffjon at 04:36 PM | Comments (0)