RACIST SPAM SENT WORLDWIDE BY GERMAN ULTRARIGHT PARTY

RACIST SPAM SENT WORLDWIDE BY GERMAN ULTRARIGHT PARTY

Some explaination about the spam auf Deutsch:

If you've been getting e -mails with subject lines like "Bloody Self-Justice," "Multi-Kulturel=Multi-Kriminell," or Turkey in the EU -- with a short message saying "read for yourself" and links you're supposed to follow -- then you're the victim of a Sober.Q worm sent to infect your computer by the NPD (German National Party), a neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic party that has scored heavily in some parts of the country by preaching racist, anti-immigrant xenophobia. So reports Der Spiegal Online this morning. This brown-shirted worm is attacking computers all over the planet...

Don't touch it, just dump it fast: "The worm infects address books and sends a copy of itself to all the entries. Various security firms have released warnings that they received hundreds of thousands of Sober.Q emails within the first 24 hours of the virus' outbreak."

New casino plans leave Iowans with mixed reactions

New casino plans leave Iowans with mixed reactions

The front page Register photo depicts the mayor of Riverside in front of the Enterprise, which suggests the whole Trek theme for the casino:

Vulcan greeters advising gamblers to "live long and prosper"

"I'm a doctor, not a black jack dealer!"

Klingon security guards: "A Klingon warrior would never deal from the bottom of the deck!"

The bar would of course be called Ten Forward, although the synthehol would probably have to go. Undecided yet whether cocktail waitresses would go Uhura miniskirt or Deanna Troi formfitting (Dr. Crusher is more my taste anyway).

Of course, with the Ferengi running the whole thing, the casino should be highly profitable.

Beaming back down to Earth, I'm not excited about the whole thing. My libertarian streak makes me feel like people should be able to gamble if they wish, but the dominant progressive gene knows that gambling functions as a regressive tax.

Here's the other problem: there are a finite number of gambling dollars. Some folks are just never going to gamble. You could float a boat in front of Hancher, two blocks from my apartment, and I still wouldn't go there. At some point the market will be saturated, and I think we've reached that point already in Iowa. Building more casinos does not really create new jobs and new wealth. Every dollar gambled in Riverside, every job created, will be a zero-sum loss for Tama or Dubuque or the Quad Cities or Marquette.

Politics, Iowa

Und hier ist der Schpamm

Und hier ist der Schpamm

Pandagon: "Has anyone else been getting massive (100-plus) amounts of German-mail, most of which have links to Der Spiegel?"

Ja, wohl, ich got a couple dozen already, und mein schpammengefilter hast missed them

That has to be the worst mock German since the Blinkenlights poster...

Army offers 15-month hitch

Army offers 15-month hitch

Draft Watch:

The Army, faced with a severe and growing shortage of recruits, began offering 15-month active-duty enlistments nationwide Thursday, the shortest tours ever.

The typical enlistment lasts three or four years; the previous shortest enlistment was two years.

Maj. Gen. Michael Rochelle, the head of the Army Recruiting Command, said 2006 could be even worse than this year, a continuation of "the toughest recruiting climate ever faced by the all-volunteer Army."

Recruits in the new 15-month program could serve in 59 of the more than 150 jobs in the Army, including the combat infantry, and then serve two years in the Reserve or National Guard...

But people have already figured out that any sort of enlistment is a reservation at the Hotel California.

Politics

A thousand beats and a thousand drummers

A thousand beats and a thousand drummers

Amanda at Panda asks the question: where are you off the liberal ranch?

My free speech absolutism places me beyond the pale on a number of "PC" issues. Hate speech, tobacco advertising, corporate news bias and the exploitation of women and sexuality in the media are all bad things. But having someone else tell you what you can and can't say is worse. It drives me crazy when people are so sensitive about speech that they can't even use the words to discuss it. It's not "the N word," it's nigger and it's in five of the top ten singles. The way to defeat a bad idea is to out-argue it, disprove it, not to silence it. Banning an idea only increases its appeal.

People whose contempt for anyone who wants to smoke or drink drive me crazy. I'm a non-smoker and a recovering alcoholic and as I learned the hard way you have to make your own mistakkes. (like that typo)

The space program is the next great human adventure and I think people who say "spend the money on earth" are small-minded and short sighted.

And I think Dennis Miller, while he's slipped, is still pretty funny. Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Politics

Bike Update

Bike Update

I should explain: regular readers will note reference to a bike theft last week and a bike ride yesterday. I have acquired, through the generosity of coworkers, TWO bikes since the theft, one of which is actually nicer that the one that was stolen.

Also: despite the removal of the photo of the (formerly) redheaded actress from "That 70's Show", the April 2004 Columbine anniversary post was still regularly drawing at least HALF of the site traffic. So it's now been renamed. People looking for the original link, which got indexed by Google of Canada, will be 404'ed. So traffic will slow down dramatically unless I do something like write some interesting original content. The whole episode has been sort of interesting although it hasn't really taught the world anything we didn't already know (that a huge amount of internet traffic is guys looking for pictures of women).

School's Out

School's Out

Well we got no choice
All the girls and boys
Makin all that noise
'Cause they found new toys
Well we can't salute ya
Can't find a flag
If that don't suit ya
That's a drag

School's out for summer
School's out forever
School's been blown to pieces

Ah, the greatest summer song ever written by anyone anywhere.

Graduation day at UIowa, and the three weeks of the year when you can get a parking space downtown begin.

And why is it that when frat boys in SUVs get frustrated at being behind a hard-working, against the wind bicyclist, they always assume the cyclist's relative lack of speed is some indicator of sexual preference? And why are they so concerned with which, uh, side of the street I like to, uh, ride my bike? I can only think of one reason why it would matter in the last to them. They must figure that since I'm riding a bike, I must have really nice legs (which I do). So, guys who tried to run me over at the Coral Ridge Mall: Sorry, but I'm straight.

My trip back from the mall was better; I discovered the local Arabic-North African market completely by accident and am nibbling on some tasty Turkish pepper spread. I also had a nice chat with the guy working there who is in this rap group:

And tomorrow as soon as the sun rises, we will still have surprises, full of good times and crisis, either way I'll still ripp the mic into slices, either way I'll let my mind go so it can take me places, if there's a line, well then I guess I'm about to cross it, driven by what I heard Mos Def and Talib kweli mention, yes ya'll, knowledge of self determation.

Iowa

Petition calls for legalizing marijuana

Petition calls for legalizing marijuana

Well, not quite. It's got the socially acceptable "medical" qualifier:

A University of Iowa student filed a petition Friday calling for the Iowa City Council to approve an ordinance that would legalize use of marijuana for medical purposes.

George Pappas, co-founder of Student for Sensible Drug Policy, turned in a petition with more than 2,800 signatures before Friday's 5 p.m. deadline. At least 2,500 signatures are required.

The city has 20 days to certify the petition. When a petition has been certified, the council must either adopt the proposal or place it on the ballot, according to the city clerk's office.

The initiative of the petition is intended to ensure "patients, for whom marijuana has been recommended by a physician, suffer no punishment or penalty for obtaining, possessing and or using medicinal marijuana and or paraphernalia used to consume medicinal marijuana."

I don't know this guy but I wish I did: George, where do I sign up to help? I have a bad feeling, though. They cut it pretty tight on the signatures, and I'm sure the city will try to find a way to weasel out of it like they did on the charter amendments.

Politics, Iowa

Aurora alert

Aurora alert

And the skies are clear - at least this morning:

"A coronal mass ejection (CME) is heading for Earth following a strong solar flare on May 13th. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras when the cloud arrives on May 14th or 15th. The display, if it materializes, will be best over high latitudes--e.g., Alaska and Canada. But CMEs sometimes spark auroras over lower latitudes, too, so everyone should keep an eye on the sky this weekend."

1 PM update: And... the clouds have rolled in.

Space

Loophole may allow US crime spree

Loophole may allow US crime spree

A loophole in US law may allow people to get away with any major crime within a 50-square mile "zone of death" in eastern Idaho, according to a Michigan law professor.

The jury would have to be drawn from the Idaho portion of Yellowstone which, according to the 2000 Census has a population of precisely zero.

"Assuming that you do not feel like consenting to trial in Cheyenne, you should go free."

Benn's call for SF to take seats

Benn's call for SF to take seats

Sinn Fein won five seats in the general election but has a policy of abstentionism.

This means its MPs refuse to swear the oath of allegiance to the Queen and so cannot enter the commons chamber.

Mr Benn said he understood Sinn Fein's position on British sovereignty but still thought it made good political sense for them to put their point of view across in the Westminister chamber.

"The thing about it that's offensive is that it requires MPs to swear allegiance to the Queen.

"If you're an MP your allegiance is to your constituents, to your party to your conscience so really MPs have to lie in order to sit in Parliament. I had to tell 17 lies."

Tony Benn, four years after retiring from Parliament "to devote more time to politics", remains a fascinating character. The purest of the lefty pure - the closest American equivalents would be a Paul Wellstone or a Bernie Sanders. Yet he's the son of nobility and led a challenge to the system in the 1960s when he inherited his family title and had to fight to renounce it and stay in the House of Commons. No friend of New Labour, he seemed hardly disturbed when his seat went Lib Dem on his retirement.

UK Election

CNBC cancels 'Dennis Miller'

CNBC cancels 'Dennis Miller'

Wonder if Monday Night Football needs a key grip...

Barrow, Alaska, begins 12 weeks of midnight sun

Barrow, Alaska, begins 12 weeks of midnight sun

"Monday's sunrise was the last for Barrow residents for the next 84 days, as the summer of continuous daylight begins for the USA's northernmost point..."

Lots of interesting astonomical and geographic weirdness when you're living on an extreme edge of the Earth.

Army, Marines miss recruiting goals again

Army, Marines miss recruiting goals again

Even the Coach, my reality check raging moderate dad, says the American public won't stand for a draft. The real question is: does Bush want his empire bad enough to risk it?

After more than three years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the all-volunteer military is facing its toughest test yet.

In April, the Army missed its recruiting goal for the third month in a row, short by nearly 2,800 recruits, or 42 percent off its target.

And for the first time in 10 years, the Marine Corps missed its recruiting goal for the last four months...

Politics

The Bicycle Thief

The Bicycle Thief



Thanks, jerk. It's bad enough my car died, and I know I was an idiot for being trusting enough to think no one would steal my unlocked bike from in front of the county building in broad daylight.

But you're still a jerk and with any luck your bad karma will bite your ass. Thanks again for depriving me of my sole transportation and my main exercise.

Bohemian Paradise

A Gaslight Village moment: neighbors hanging out on the porch singing Bohemian Rhapsody loudly - at 7 PM on a Monday out of joie de vive and not at 3 AM Saturday out of intoxication. And with a reasonable approximation of harmony.

It truly is Bohemian Paradise up here on the north side. I'll grant you that life in a rundown ramshackle set of mismatched buildings, among very broke arty college kids, is not everyone's cup of espresso. But I'm having fun with it.

Democrats' platform shouldn't back gay marriage, Kerry says

Democrats' platform shouldn't back gay marriage, Kerry says

Thanks, John, for that gutsy stance. Leaders lead. Just Another Politicians pander. And guess what? Anyone who's voting solely on opposition to gay marriage is already voting Republican anyway!

Politics

CJR May/June 2005: Stations of the Cross

Stations of the Cross

A true must read overview of "Christian" media.

Conservative evangelicals control at least six national television networks, each reaching tens of millions of homes, and virtually all of the nation’s more than 2,000 religious radio stations. Thanks to Christian radio’s rapid growth, religious stations now outnumber every other format except country music and news-talk. If they want to dwell solely in this alternative universe, believers can now choose to have only Christian programs piped into their homes...

This is the fundamentalist subculture, self-segregating and self-seceding - something between a quarter and a third of the country, and absolutely unreachable for the Democratic Party.

Politics

The latest from the smallest

The latest from the smallest

Having yet another human being weekend. After last weeks UK election obsession I'm having trouble getting my head back into US domestic politics.

The Smallest Farm in Iowa is going through a forced move to a less sunny spot. The peas and volunteers are staying put and hopefully the house painters won't trash them, but the main farm is moving to the back of the complex. I dug it up Tuesday and re-dug it yesterday, and transplanted some catnip and bee balm. The soil looks good - this is, after all, Iowa - but the sun situation looks iffy, at least for beans and tomatoes. Eggplant is definitely out this year.

On the indoor domestic front, the acquisition of a new printer led to four hours of rearranging last night, digging though the Gordian knot of cords behing the World's Cheapest Entertainment Center. I also need to de-clutter the Bohemian Paradise; I'm a pack rat by nature and unfortunately my daughter and I love shopping together. After two years I'm still adjusting from home ownership to apartment life. With the pending departure of my kitchen neighbor I may also need to haul my kitchen toys back into the dining room...

Trimble Defeated

Trimble Defeated

"The centre dropped out of Northern Ireland politics this evening..."

An 8.1% swing to DUP, and the Nobel Peace Prize winning UUP leader loses. UUP has now lost 2 to DUP and one, freakishly, to SDLP. The Six Counties are turning a darker shade of orange... and waiting on Foyle to see if it turns darker green as Sinn Fein is challenging SDLP hard there. (Oops, never mind.)

UPDATE: UUP loses ANOTHER one to DUP and are now down to one seat. Meanwhile, Sinn Fein picks up one from SDLP, and SDLP holds steady only because a dead-even DUP/UUP split lets them pick up a fluke win in a Unionist constituency.

UK Election