My Quiet Life

This update is long in coming, mostly because I have been enjoying the new laptop (and using it to, you know.. work). Linux seems to be working almost entirely.

(more...)

Say hello to my little friend.

Dell Latitude X300.

Just got it in today.
Intel Pentium M 1.2 GHz
640M of RAM
30G drive.

But the kicker is: it only weighs 2.9 lbs. It's awesome.

I haven't gotten Linux on it yet, which may be a challenge, because of the Intel b/g wireless card, the gig broadcom NIC and the USB CDROM, but we'll see.

Kudos to Steve Cohen for providing the lone vote against the motion to create a Tennessee constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

If you're in Tennessee, be sure to e-mail your senator and complain. Unless of course you're in Steve Cohen's District 30!

Two things, quickly:

First, fallacies are bad. Usually this goes without saying, but it seems one form of logical fallacy -- the "slippery slope" argument -- is being used increasingly as an actual argument. Indeed, the entire case against gay marriage these days is one giant slippery slope fallacy. But more disturbing is that I've seen it used intentionally with seeming obliviousness to the fact that it's a logical error. Example: Bill Hobbs:
(more...)

This started off as a comment on a post over at Say Uncle that just got out of hand. He asks "I wonder why the other, smaller terrorist groups haven't tried small-scale stuff?", referring to a post asking the same about suicide bombing.

First, as to suicide bombings in particular, I would hazard a guess based on some very uninformed and possibly incorrect assumptions off the top of my head (hm, maybe I should make that my blog's motto!):
(more...)

Shameless plug time. Check it out: My friend Paul has launched a company, Future Relic. They're big fans of the modern artist's canvas of choice: the t-shirt. From their site:

Future Relic is the collaboration of two artists: Paul Kim (NYC) and Kenyon Bajus (Philadelphia). They met in college in 1998 where Paul studied photography and Kenyon focused on the graphic arts.

Paul became interested in Kenyon's ability to instigate reactions with his subversive imagery, just as Kenyon was intrigued by the way Paul exposes interesting aspects in the banalities of life.

If you're in California, Georgia, Hawaii, New York, B.C, or Australia, go buy a shirt. If not, order one online!

Courtesy of Slate's "Why $2 Gas is Amazing":

Since cartels violate U.S. law, Chatterbox figured that the American occupation of Iraq would create legal problems for the Coalition Provisional Authority. (See "Is Bremer a Price Fixer?" and "Has the U.S. Joined OPEC?") But it turned out the United States was too busy violating the Geneva Conventions to give much thought to whatever lesser legal arrangements it might be ignoring.

Jim has some more good points about my previous post about punitive damage awarding. I will concede that the probability of unintended consequences is very high, particularly with a Republican administration. I would like to officially retract my "great idea" and posit that it is merely an "interesting idea".

George Soros delivered a commencement speech at Columbia School of International & Public Affairs yesterday, that is both poignant and at times amusing:
(more...)

Why Would a Progressive Gay Couple Marry? Some great commentary by Betsy Leondar-Wright on the implications of gay marriage:
(more...)