Joel nails it

I try to look for the humor in these things [TSA], twisted or otherwise. But the arguments in favor are so damned lame, it just isn’t funny. I give you:

I’d rather go through a pat-down than to sit on a plane and watch a terrorist slice a passenger’s throat.

To which I can only reply – and very seriously – You’d really just sit there and watch? Then why should I care what you think about anything?

Blogetery

There’s been quite a bit of conjecture about this affair being “a test of the Internet kill switch“. Apparently, it wasn’t quite that, yet. The Fibbies found some Al Quada material on a Blogotery blog, and went to Blogotery’s server BurstNET, who cancelled the account as a TOS violation.

The Blogetery guy doesn’t sound as if English is his first language, and he doesn’t sound like a whiz on server law either. Should he realistically be expected to police 69K blogs? Is it reasonable for BurstNET to terminate 69K bloggers over the actions of one? What this tells me is that a “kill switch” isn’t needed: the government can pretty much shut down what it wants, under the guise of “fighting terrorism”.

A representative for Burst.net said the company had offered Blogetery’s operator his money back, but that “should be the least of his concerns.”

Personally, I think Burst has just as much to worry about as Blogetery. If I were a customer, I’d be looking for a new server.

They’re crying in the nursery…

Some poor soul offed himself (bloodying up a nice Mustang in the process), and the Record-Courier became such a battleground between people making sick jokes about it, and folks with namby-pamby moralizing, that they evidently closed comments before I encountered it.

Well, screw you, R-C; I have a blog!

It’s not “judging” to state that Christopher Poland committed a mortal sin. He stole a life that belonged to his family and to God. I would be judging and presuming to know the mind of God to speculate on where he is now. I don’t know why he did it, but I’ve had a spouse drive me to that direction, and “There but for the grace of God…”

Should they have printed the picture? I don’t know; it’s off now. It was in unnecessarily bad taste. But you know, when somebody offs themselves in public in a spectacular way, there’s no reasonable expectation of privacy.

Oh, and whiteninjatiger?

what is life a world of misfortunes of ignorance, hatred, unfair treatment to others of race or creed or perhaps impartial treatment to others. …Our world is in deep trouble let alone our country and OUR Government does absolutely nothing for US only for them. Think about that on this Memorial day and thank the Veterans for giving us the *right* to voice our thoughts.

With all due respect, veterans didn’t give me shit (well, one veteran gave me a birthday cake today, but she isn’t currently in the employ of the government). I had the right to voice my thoughts the minute I left the womb (if not before), along with the rest of my rights. Veterans have sometimes protected those rights (when not protecting the privileges of government and multinational corporations), for which I am duly thankful.

Linux time at home, anti-virus for your car?

IBM, the company that enabled the Holocaust, has just filed patents giving it (or licensees such as the State) constructive ownership of your car. Meanwhile, researchers on the Left Coast have hacked a sedan.

Wir sind gefickt.

It’s hard to be sympathetic

A new wellness program at the Palm Beach County tax collector’s office has employees saying they’re being intimidated into giving blood for health screenings or risk losing their jobs.

All cheap jokes about bloodsuckers aside, this is objectionable behavior from an employer and even more objectionable from the government. That being said, they could quit. And this Anne Gannon does not sound like the kind of person one wants in that job.

Another reason not to Kindle

We combine the highlights of all Kindle customers and identify the passages with the most highlights. The resulting Popular Highlights help readers to focus on passages that are meaningful to the greatest number of people. We show only passages where the highlights of at least three distinct customers overlap, and we do not show which customers made those highlights.

But you know who they are. You don’t even know what paper books I own, let alone what’s highlighted. Nobody does.
H/T: McElroy