Herman comic strip
on
ChronoSpace
·
· Score: 3, Funny
Indeed, the story starts out revolving around the central premise that the small percentage of UFO's sighted that can't be explained away as airplanes, comets, or blimps, are in actuality time-travelling ships from the future sent to investigate the past.
There was a Herman comic strip -- oh, about 3 or 4 years ago -- where the characters are discussing UFOs. One of them says something like "I think they're time travellers from the future." When asked what they're doing, he answers "Buying up real estate."
On the March 16, 1989 edition of CBS's 48 Hours, reporter David Martin told viewers that he converted a semi-automatic rifle to full-automatic without a license, which is a felony. CBS filmed the conversion work, and broadcast part of it on the program. Unlike David Koresh, who was suspected of doing the same thing, CBS only received a letter of reprimand from the BATF.
Same Robot Used to Search WTC site
on
Robots Go Spelunking
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I was at Acroname's Robo02 robotics expo in Boulder, Colorado, earlier this year.
Lt. Colonel John Blitch (US Army, Ret.), of the Center for Robotic Assisted Search and Rescue, brought one of the Packbots that had been used in Afghanistan to the expo for his presentation on robotic search and rescue. (The robot still had Afghan dirt all over it).
OK, looking at the web page I cited in my post above, there have been other attempts to come up with a timekeeping system for the Martians, dating back to 1880.
In the appendix to his 1991 novel Martin Rainbow, Robert L. Forward devised a Martian calender. It is based on the standard second, and uses a regular system of leap seconds to keep the calander close to Earth's.
Usually, most science fiction characters refer to something like "Earth Standard Time," or something like that. This is the first attempt I am aware of that deals with the issue of timekeeping for off-Earth colonies.
Does anyone remember the Prologue in James Gleick's book Chaos: Making a New Science?
In 1974, Mitchell Feigenbaum was a new researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Shortly after arriving, he began "experimenting with twenty-six hour days, which meant that his waking schedule would slowly roll in and out of phase with [his co-workers']. This bordered on strange, even for the Theoretical Division....The twenty four hour day seemed too constraining. Nevertheless, his experiment in personal quasiperiodicity came to an end when he decided he could no longer bear waking to the setting sun, as had to happen every few days."
Last year, the Detroit Free Press ran a two part story about police officers who abused a law enforcment data base, which is tied into the FBI's NCIC, for personal reasons.
Cops tap database to harass, intimidate
July 31, 2001
First of two parts
BY M. L. ELRICK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Police throughout Michigan, entrusted with the personal and confidential information in a state law enforcement database, have used it to stalk women, threaten motorists and settle scores....
Police said they think the system, which is used to make about 3 million background checks each month, is more widely abused than anyone knows...
Despite rules limiting LEIN use to law enforcement purposes, police told the Free Press their colleagues use LEIN to check out attractive people they spot on the road.
"I'm not going to be so naive as to say an officer hasn't seen a pretty girl and run her plate," said Carey, who also was once chief in Troy.
Former Memphis Police Chief Phillip Ludos said the practice is so common it is known simply as "Running a plate for a date."...
A few months ago, the Free Press did a follow-up, about how the Detroit police handled the offenders:
Abusers' names to be wiped out
Officers who misused LEIN won't be traceable
April 26, 2002
by M.L. Elrick
Free Press Staff Writer
LANSING -- State officials made it harder Thursday for the public to learn who has abused the confidential Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN), a computer database containing driving records, criminal records and other personal information.
Reversing their practice of keeping the names of police and others who abuse the system, the Criminal Justice Information Systems Policy Council voted to delete the names after investigating each case.
The council, made up of prosecutors, police and state officials, made the change after state and local police officials expressed concerns that maintaining a database of abusers would violate labor contracts, which limit the amount of time a transgression can remain on an employee's record...
When the title is "China to build Moon base", 90% of the discussions are related to 'communists', 'stealing technology', 'human rights'. I presume, most of the people have never been to China.
Like the People's Republic of China, I've never been to Nazi Germany. Does that mean my anti-Nazi opinions are baseless, and I shouldn't believe all the bad things I've heard?
For those who think that only right-wing Christian anti-abortionists engage in such hate-mongering, you should read the following blogs by Andrew Sullivan, from the week of November 25, 2001, about an extreme gay group that had a web site similar to "The Nuremberg Files":
MORE HATE FROM THE GAY LEFT: The far gay left is one of the most virulent hate-groups in the country. Tolerated by much of the gay media and beyond, their hate-filled and near-violent tactics are often ignored or tolerated by other gay men and women and liberal straights who should know better. Here's a small taste of what some gay hate-groups are now up to. It's a list of leading individuals the authors of the website "usqueers.com" want to see dead. The headline: "Wanted: To Experience A Horrible Death By Any Means Soon. Well-Known Het-Supremacists Deserve It As Their Reward." Notice the phrase 'By Any Means." Are these people condoning murder? There then follows this statement:
"If a person on this list dies (preferably a horrible death), a line will be drawn through their name (and they will probably be added to our Good Riddance! list.) If a person on this list is merely wounded or debilitated in some way, we will change the color of their name to brown. NOTE: We're just getting started on this list, but the type of information we will be listing here as it comes in includes anything such as Home Address, Home Phone, Office Address, Office Phone, Studio Address, Church Address, Girlfriend's Address, Boyfriend's Address, Favorite Hangouts (restaurants, etc.), Family Members, details about automobiles, just about anything which could be useful in spotting these dangerous het supremacists when they are wandering around loose. Organization information is also helpful, but mainly when it can be linked to specific het supremacists."
They add a disingenuous disclaimer disavowing violence - but these are the very people who seize on even the slightest homophobic remark to argue that it leads to gay-bashing. Notice also their complete contempt for anyone's privacy or personal dignity - a good indicator of a totalitarian mindset. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for their free speech. And I'm no fan of many of the individuals they oppose. But this kind of extremist, personal rhetoric is simply disgusting. It's equivalent to the hate-filled pro-lifers who discredit their cause by advocating the murder of abortionists. I don't know where these people get their hatred from, but it is as real and as dangerous as any of the right-wing hate groups who also deserve censure. These people do as much damage to the cause of gay equality and civility as anyone on the far right. It's time we stopped ignoring their evil.
MONKEY-FISHING?: James Taranto of OpinionJournal.com thinks I've been snookered by a site, usQueers.com, that's supposed to be a parody. And USQueers.com does have its fair share of campy excess. But James is wrong. The site I'm worried about is serious, extensive, and the owner of it is real. He's one Allan Ross, who told CNSNews.com that he was indeed unironic: "In a phone interview, Ross said he stands behind the content of his web site. But he added: 'It's certainly open to legal change if somebody points out that you're crossing the line here and legally you're saying, go out and do this, because we don't want anybody to go out and do this. The whole idea here was to say that they deserve to die for what they've done. I'm not standing behind calling for the death or murder or anything like that of anybody on this list at all. Or anybody listed on our web site. We do not call to murder anybody or hurt them or even touch them,' Ross said." So why then, one wonders, is the early and horrible death of named individuals called for on the site "by any means"? Then see what you make of this. Earlier this year, the following incident occurred at First Southern Baptist Church in San Diego. One Allan Ross had to be subdued by San Diego police for attacking a Baptist minister, David Powell. According to the Baptist News, "Powell said Ross initially asked to speak with the pastor... Powell agreed to contact [Pastor] Lewis from the church office in the adjacent main building. As they were walking toward the office, Powell recounted that Ross revealed a jagged bottom of a glass bottle. 'I will hurt you if I have to,' Powell quoted Ross as saying. Powell said Ross also threatened to cut the artery in his neck and take his own life." According to the Baptist Press, Ross then took Powell hostage until he called the media, wanting to broadcast an anti-Baptist message. Ross was eventually overpowered by police. This article from the Catholic World News identifies this criminal with the same Allan Ross of the usQueers.com site. And on the site itself is this statement: "B. Allan Ross, was arrested for three felony violations he allegedly committed at the First Southern Baptist Church of San Diego, including the two most likely to be pursued in court - kidnapping and holding the church's janitor hostage."
LAVENDAR FASCISM: So am I over-reacting? Sure, Ross represents a minuscule portion of gay culture. Sure, his site is fringe and obscure. And sure, Ross may well be a bit unhinged. But none of this makes his specific threats against named individuals any less real. In fact, it makes them more real. I guess it's having been subjected to death-threats from far left gay activists myself that makes me realize these people are for real. (Last summer, a legit gay website, Datalounge.com, having fomented a vicious witch-hunt against me last spring, broadcast a specific threat to have my own "skull cracked open" in Provincetown. It took a week to get the owners to take the threat off the site, and they refused to apologize. They still won't disown the death-threat.) The truth is these extremists are not parodists. And they're not monkey-fishers. They're dangerous cranks, who get a pass from the liberal gay establishment, so long as they keep terrorizing straights or non-p.c. gays. Again, I support their right to free speech. I don't believe their site should be censored or shut down. But they are the gay equivalent of the anti-abortion murderers and the Klan. It's time we said so - don't you think, Mr Taranto? Or do we have to wait for the unthinkable to happen before we speak up? - 11:40:44 PM, Tuesday November 27, 2001
MORE GAY EXTREMISM: James Taranto conceded yesterday he'd been too hasty in dismissing my worry about usQueers.com. In fact, the problem of some gay extremists violating basic norms of propriety in civil discourse is finally getting some attention. Two such activists were arrested today in San Francisco for "allegedly stalking and threatening newspaper reporters and Public Health Department workers." I feel bad because one of them, Michael Petrelis, has done good work in the past, but appears to have gone completely off the edge in the past couple of months. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "Newspaper employees said the men made dozens of obscene and threatening phone calls earlier this month to their homes and at work. A bomb threat also was made to the San Francisco Chronicle's offices." This isn't new. Until you've been targeted by these extremists, you don't know how vicious they can be: phone calls at all hours of the day and night, threats of violence, intimidating relatives and ex-boyfriends. They have no sense of decency. ACT-UP did many good things, but it also tolerated and fomented a fascistic approach to civil politics that has metastasized since. I'm glad this has come to a head. And I hope the mainstream gay groups like the Human Rights Campaign will finally denounce the tactics of violating privacy, threatening violence and general puerility that sadly infects much gay extreme left activism. So far, such mainstream groups have simply been silent or craven, terrified that they might be next on the list. It's time for them to speak up in defense of privacy, decency and civility in the gay rights movement, and condemn thuggery in all its forms. - 12:57:11 AM Thursay November 29, 2001
THREE CHEERS FOR HRC: The Human Rights Campaign, the country's biggest gay rights group, condemned the usQueers.com site today. Congrats to them. Here's the quote: "'Calling for the death of people is reprehensible and in no way, shape or form should be condoned by anybody,' David Smith, an HRC spokesman, said after viewing the contents of usQueers.com. 'These types of sites, on either side of any debate, should be condemned in the strongest possible way,' Smith said." Amen, David. And thanks. - 12:04:25 PM Thursday November 29, 2001
GAY FASCISM WATCH: "'We're watching you,' said one [activist] voicemail message saved by Jeff Sheehy, a press officer for the AIDS Research Institute at UC San Francisco. 'Your name is on the list of enemies of the homosexual community. We're out here on the streets and we're going to make sure that you don't open your mouth again to demonize us.' 'I don't know what to do,' Sheehy said. 'I'm afraid to go to work.'" - from the Los Angeles Times today. - 6:47:31 PM Thursday November 29, 2001
From the Internet Movie Data Bases's trivia about Star Wars, at http://us.imdb.com/Trivia?0076759
The episode number and subtitle "A New Hope" did not originally appear in the film's opening crawl. These were added in a later re-release to be consistent with those seen in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Both Christianity and Judaism went through reformation movements.
Islam, being the youngest of the three Western religions, has not.
As for the cliche about "Christians have shed more blood in God's name than ANY other religeon, ever," I would like to see a number -- especially compared to belief systems like Communism or Naziism.
It may be true, but I've never seen anything to back it up.
Slashdot Mirror
See Face Transplants on the Way.
There was a Herman comic strip -- oh, about 3 or 4 years ago -- where the characters are discussing UFOs. One of them says something like "I think they're time travellers from the future." When asked what they're doing, he answers "Buying up real estate."
Re:Verify?
The sharpest image ever taken of the moon from the Earth's surface "is 0.07 arcsec, or about 130 metres on the lunar surface (in the N-S direction). Elevation differences of a few tens of metres only are therefore visible by the shadows they cast. The VLT image represents what an astronaut (with normal eye acuity of 1 arcmin) would see from 400 km above the surface." (European Southern Observatory press release, August 9, 2002).
On the March 16, 1989 edition of CBS's 48 Hours, reporter David Martin told viewers that he converted a semi-automatic rifle to full-automatic without a license, which is a felony. CBS filmed the conversion work, and broadcast part of it on the program. Unlike David Koresh, who was suspected of doing the same thing, CBS only received a letter of reprimand from the BATF.
I love the MP3 format, so my check is in the mail.
Well, not exactly a check, more like 75 pennies.
Did you send them your ass pennies?
Or just send them your "ass pennies".
Re: Same Robot Used to Search WTC site
Dammit, I forgot to include two links:
Robo02: http://www.robo02.com/
Acroname: http://www.acroname.com/
Sorry about that...
I was at Acroname's Robo02 robotics expo in Boulder, Colorado, earlier this year.
e ry.html.
Lt. Colonel John Blitch (US Army, Ret.), of the Center for Robotic Assisted Search and Rescue, brought one of the Packbots that had been used in Afghanistan to the expo for his presentation on robotic search and rescue. (The robot still had Afghan dirt all over it).
A similar model was used, and lost, during the search at the World Trade Center site. Pictures of it at the WTC can be seen at http://www.csee.usf.edu/robotics/crasar/photoGall
I don't trust Windows 98 to cruise the "information superhighway," so why would I want to use in on a real highway?
OK, looking at the web page I cited in my post above, there have been other attempts to come up with a timekeeping system for the Martians, dating back to 1880.
More information can be found at http://pweb.jps.net/~tgangale/mars/index.htm.
In the appendix to his 1991 novel Martin Rainbow, Robert L. Forward devised a Martian calender. It is based on the standard second, and uses a regular system of leap seconds to keep the calander close to Earth's.
h tm.
Rather than try to summarize the system, I was fortunate enough to find the relevant passage on the internet at http://pweb.jps.net/~tgangale/mars/other/forward.
Usually, most science fiction characters refer to something like "Earth Standard Time," or something like that. This is the first attempt I am aware of that deals with the issue of timekeeping for off-Earth colonies.
Does anyone remember the Prologue in James Gleick's book Chaos: Making a New Science?
In 1974, Mitchell Feigenbaum was a new researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Shortly after arriving, he began "experimenting with twenty-six hour days, which meant that his waking schedule would slowly roll in and out of phase with [his co-workers']. This bordered on strange, even for the Theoretical Division....The twenty four hour day seemed too constraining. Nevertheless, his experiment in personal quasiperiodicity came to an end when he decided he could no longer bear waking to the setting sun, as had to happen every few days."
Do you want the date of that episode in the current format, or the metric date?
Like, why not just go straight cellular and connect to the internet or your home beowulf cluster?
Can students use their cel phones to call their life-lines during exams?
...if my car keys and TV remote were connected to the wireless network.
So that's what they did with those $600 toilet seats the Air Force developed back in the 1980s.
That was $6,000,000 in 1976.
It would be nearly $19 million today.
[Inflation calculator at http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ ]
Dialogue ommitted from The Terminator:
"The Series 200 Terminators were made out of interlocking plastic bricks. We spotted them easily..."
Last year, the Detroit Free Press ran a two part story about police officers who abused a law enforcment data base, which is tied into the FBI's NCIC, for personal reasons.
m
m
http://www.freep.com/news/mich/lein31_20010731.ht
Cops tap database to harass, intimidate
July 31, 2001
First of two parts
BY M. L. ELRICK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Police throughout Michigan, entrusted with the personal and confidential information in a state law enforcement database, have used it to stalk women, threaten motorists and settle scores....
Police said they think the system, which is used to make about 3 million background checks each month, is more widely abused than anyone knows...
Despite rules limiting LEIN use to law enforcement purposes, police told the Free Press their colleagues use LEIN to check out attractive people they spot on the road.
"I'm not going to be so naive as to say an officer hasn't seen a pretty girl and run her plate," said Carey, who also was once chief in Troy.
Former Memphis Police Chief Phillip Ludos said the practice is so common it is known simply as "Running a plate for a date."...
A few months ago, the Free Press did a follow-up, about how the Detroit police handled the offenders:
http://www.freep.com/news/mich/lein26_20020426.ht
Abusers' names to be wiped out
Officers who misused LEIN won't be traceable
April 26, 2002
by M.L. Elrick
Free Press Staff Writer
LANSING -- State officials made it harder Thursday for the public to learn who has abused the confidential Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN), a computer database containing driving records, criminal records and other personal information.
Reversing their practice of keeping the names of police and others who abuse the system, the Criminal Justice Information Systems Policy Council voted to delete the names after investigating each case.
The council, made up of prosecutors, police and state officials, made the change after state and local police officials expressed concerns that maintaining a database of abusers would violate labor contracts, which limit the amount of time a transgression can remain on an employee's record...
was: Re:Sad...
When the title is "China to build Moon base", 90% of the discussions are related to 'communists', 'stealing technology', 'human rights'. I presume, most of the people have never been to China.
Like the People's Republic of China, I've never been to Nazi Germany. Does that mean my anti-Nazi opinions are baseless, and I shouldn't believe all the bad things I've heard?
Somehow, they came up with (yawn) Gattaca as the #2 SF movie of all time!?!
I guess blamanj would have liked the movie more if they had made Battlestar Gattaca instead?
For those who think that only right-wing Christian anti-abortionists engage in such hate-mongering, you should read the following blogs by Andrew Sullivan, from the week of November 25, 2001, about an extreme gay group that had a web site similar to "The Nuremberg Files":
... Powell agreed to contact [Pastor] Lewis from the church office in the adjacent main building. As they were walking toward the office, Powell recounted that Ross revealed a jagged bottom of a glass bottle. 'I will hurt you if I have to,' Powell quoted Ross as saying. Powell said Ross also threatened to cut the artery in his neck and take his own life." According to the Baptist Press, Ross then took Powell hostage until he called the media, wanting to broadcast an anti-Baptist message. Ross was eventually overpowered by police. This article from the Catholic World News identifies this criminal with the same Allan Ross of the usQueers.com site. And on the site itself is this statement: "B. Allan Ross, was arrested for three felony violations he allegedly committed at the First Southern Baptist Church of San Diego, including the two most likely to be pursued in court - kidnapping and holding the church's janitor hostage."
MORE HATE FROM THE GAY LEFT: The far gay left is one of the most virulent hate-groups in the country. Tolerated by much of the gay media and beyond, their hate-filled and near-violent tactics are often ignored or tolerated by other gay men and women and liberal straights who should know better. Here's a small taste of what some gay hate-groups are now up to. It's a list of leading individuals the authors of the website "usqueers.com" want to see dead. The headline: "Wanted: To Experience A Horrible Death By Any Means Soon. Well-Known Het-Supremacists Deserve It As Their Reward." Notice the phrase 'By Any Means." Are these people condoning murder? There then follows this statement:
"If a person on this list dies (preferably a horrible death), a line will be drawn through their name (and they will probably be added to our Good Riddance! list.) If a person on this list is merely wounded or debilitated in some way, we will change the color of their name to brown. NOTE: We're just getting started on this list, but the type of information we will be listing here as it comes in includes anything such as Home Address, Home Phone, Office Address, Office Phone, Studio Address, Church Address, Girlfriend's Address, Boyfriend's Address, Favorite Hangouts (restaurants, etc.), Family Members, details about automobiles, just about anything which could be useful in spotting these dangerous het supremacists when they are wandering around loose. Organization information is also helpful, but mainly when it can be linked to specific het supremacists."
They add a disingenuous disclaimer disavowing violence - but these are the very people who seize on even the slightest homophobic remark to argue that it leads to gay-bashing. Notice also their complete contempt for anyone's privacy or personal dignity - a good indicator of a totalitarian mindset. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for their free speech. And I'm no fan of many of the individuals they oppose. But this kind of extremist, personal rhetoric is simply disgusting. It's equivalent to the hate-filled pro-lifers who discredit their cause by advocating the murder of abortionists. I don't know where these people get their hatred from, but it is as real and as dangerous as any of the right-wing hate groups who also deserve censure. These people do as much damage to the cause of gay equality and civility as anyone on the far right. It's time we stopped ignoring their evil.
- 7:05:12 PM Monday, November 26, 2001
MONKEY-FISHING?: James Taranto of OpinionJournal.com thinks I've been snookered by a site, usQueers.com, that's supposed to be a parody. And USQueers.com does have its fair share of campy excess. But James is wrong. The site I'm worried about is serious, extensive, and the owner of it is real. He's one Allan Ross, who told CNSNews.com that he was indeed unironic: "In a phone interview, Ross said he stands behind the content of his web site. But he added: 'It's certainly open to legal change if somebody points out that you're crossing the line here and legally you're saying, go out and do this, because we don't want anybody to go out and do this. The whole idea here was to say that they deserve to die for what they've done. I'm not standing behind calling for the death or murder or anything like that of anybody on this list at all. Or anybody listed on our web site. We do not call to murder anybody or hurt them or even touch them,' Ross said." So why then, one wonders, is the early and horrible death of named individuals called for on the site "by any means"? Then see what you make of this. Earlier this year, the following incident occurred at First Southern Baptist Church in San Diego. One Allan Ross had to be subdued by San Diego police for attacking a Baptist minister, David Powell. According to the Baptist News, "Powell said Ross initially asked to speak with the pastor
LAVENDAR FASCISM: So am I over-reacting? Sure, Ross represents a minuscule portion of gay culture. Sure, his site is fringe and obscure. And sure, Ross may well be a bit unhinged. But none of this makes his specific threats against named individuals any less real. In fact, it makes them more real. I guess it's having been subjected to death-threats from far left gay activists myself that makes me realize these people are for real. (Last summer, a legit gay website, Datalounge.com, having fomented a vicious witch-hunt against me last spring, broadcast a specific threat to have my own "skull cracked open" in Provincetown. It took a week to get the owners to take the threat off the site, and they refused to apologize. They still won't disown the death-threat.) The truth is these extremists are not parodists. And they're not monkey-fishers. They're dangerous cranks, who get a pass from the liberal gay establishment, so long as they keep terrorizing straights or non-p.c. gays. Again, I support their right to free speech. I don't believe their site should be censored or shut down. But they are the gay equivalent of the anti-abortion murderers and the Klan. It's time we said so - don't you think, Mr Taranto? Or do we have to wait for the unthinkable to happen before we speak up?
- 11:40:44 PM, Tuesday November 27, 2001
MORE GAY EXTREMISM: James Taranto conceded yesterday he'd been too hasty in dismissing my worry about usQueers.com. In fact, the problem of some gay extremists violating basic norms of propriety in civil discourse is finally getting some attention. Two such activists were arrested today in San Francisco for "allegedly stalking and threatening newspaper reporters and Public Health Department workers." I feel bad because one of them, Michael Petrelis, has done good work in the past, but appears to have gone completely off the edge in the past couple of months. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "Newspaper employees said the men made dozens of obscene and threatening phone calls earlier this month to their homes and at work. A bomb threat also was made to the San Francisco Chronicle's offices." This isn't new. Until you've been targeted by these extremists, you don't know how vicious they can be: phone calls at all hours of the day and night, threats of violence, intimidating relatives and ex-boyfriends. They have no sense of decency. ACT-UP did many good things, but it also tolerated and fomented a fascistic approach to civil politics that has metastasized since. I'm glad this has come to a head. And I hope the mainstream gay groups like the Human Rights Campaign will finally denounce the tactics of violating privacy, threatening violence and general puerility that sadly infects much gay extreme left activism. So far, such mainstream groups have simply been silent or craven, terrified that they might be next on the list. It's time for them to speak up in defense of privacy, decency and civility in the gay rights movement, and condemn thuggery in all its forms.
- 12:57:11 AM Thursay November 29, 2001
THREE CHEERS FOR HRC: The Human Rights Campaign, the country's biggest gay rights group, condemned the usQueers.com site today. Congrats to them. Here's the quote: "'Calling for the death of people is reprehensible and in no way, shape or form should be condoned by anybody,' David Smith, an HRC spokesman, said after viewing the contents of usQueers.com. 'These types of sites, on either side of any debate, should be condemned in the strongest possible way,' Smith said." Amen, David. And thanks.
- 12:04:25 PM Thursday November 29, 2001
GAY FASCISM WATCH: "'We're watching you,' said one [activist] voicemail message saved by Jeff Sheehy, a press officer for the AIDS Research Institute at UC San Francisco. 'Your name is on the list of enemies of the homosexual community. We're out here on the streets and we're going to make sure that you don't open your mouth again to demonize us.' 'I don't know what to do,' Sheehy said. 'I'm afraid to go to work.'" - from the Los Angeles Times today.
- 6:47:31 PM Thursday November 29, 2001
From the Internet Movie Data Bases's trivia about Star Wars, at http://us.imdb.com/Trivia?0076759
The episode number and subtitle "A New Hope" did not originally appear in the film's opening crawl. These were added in a later re-release to be consistent with those seen in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Re:This may sound a little elitist, but...
Geeks, on the other hand, are intelligent and have enough free time to sit around and discuss about how they're getting royally fucked over
The fact that many geeks are currently unemployed gives them a lot of free time...
Both Christianity and Judaism went through reformation movements.
Islam, being the youngest of the three Western religions, has not.
As for the cliche about "Christians have shed more blood in God's name than ANY other religeon, ever," I would like to see a number -- especially compared to belief systems like Communism or Naziism.
It may be true, but I've never seen anything to back it up.