Google now expected to take control of the Universe

Google isn't just a cute little search engine anymore. Besides being added to the English language as a verb, Google also has a popular e-mail service (the host of my current main e-mail address) and several mapping services (e.g. Google Local and Google Earth). Also, Google has gobbled up Writerly. I'm not sure what Writerly is, but if Google bought it, it must be pretty cool.

But it's Google's mapping service that seems to be going universal. On a ZDNet post, Garett Rogers mentioned that Google now has a service similar to Google Local (a/k/a Google Maps) called "Google Mars". So if you ever wanted to take a trip to Utopia Planitia (yes, I admit to be a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation), Google Mars tells you exactly where you need to land your spaceship. For people that want to stay a little closer to Terra, they can choose to visit Earth's own natural satellite at Google Moon. The Moon and Mars seem to be the only extra-terrestrial options right now as I couldn't find an official list and my other attempts (such as "http://universe.google.com/" and "http://europa.google.com/") returned "Server not found", but I bet more are coming. I'm not sure how fun Mercury would be, but I'm looking forward to checking out Venus.

By the way (and back on Earth), Google bought Blogger a while back, too. (That's service that I use to blog with.)

Glenn Beck gets a daily show on Headline News

Glenn Beck announced on his radio show today that he's going to have a TV show on the Headline News cable network. I think he said he expects it to start in March or April. It'll be on during primetime Monday-Friday (the exact time hasn't been decided and/or announced yet). It's not that I need to watch more TV every week, but I'm sure I'll check it out since his radio show is pretty good most days.

From "Radio Personality Glenn Beck Joins Headline News":

Known for his quick wit, candid opinions and engaging personality, Beck has attracted a devoted following since hitting the airwaves in 2001. In addition to his new Headline News duties, Beck will continue hosting his daily radio show, The Glenn Beck Program, syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks. His radio show, currently heard on nearly 200 stations nationwide, is the third highest-rated national radio talk show among adults ages 25 to 54 according to Premiere Research/Arbitron.

When you hear that Glenn is ranked third, it might be useful to realize that Rush Limbaugh has the top-rated show, and the next highest rated show is Sean Hannity's radio program. Sean has been cross-promoting his radio show with his Hannity and Colmes show on FNC for years, and Rush Limbaugh practically invented the modern talk show format. Especially considering that Beck didn't go national until 2001, that's a good crowd to be in. I've been listening off-and-on since the beginning, and it seems like Beck's show continues to get even better every year, too.

From Glenn Beck joins CNN Headline News:

At Headline News, "Glenn Beck" will air out of New York and be an unconventional look at the news of the day featuring Beck's often amusing perspective. The one-hour program will include guests and produced packages.

"Having tired of the predictable left-versus-right debates in cable news, I am eager to offer a different take for Headline News viewers," Beck said in a statement. "I hope that people will come away from our show not only informed, but also entertained, in a way they're not used to seeing on cable news."

I wouldn't expect anything less than an "unconventional" show from Glenn Beck and his team. Glenn said today that he'd be surprised if his show lasted more than about 13 weeks. I for one hope he's surprised.

I Like Making Icons

I've been looking for a good free icon editor for a long time. Maybe I'm just too picky. Or maybe it's that I have no artistic ability, and it doesn't matter what kind of editor I use my icons will look terrible. Regardless of the cause of my lack of satisfaction, I've found some really nice editors in the past (such as LiquidIconXP, Ranfo Freeware Icon Editor, and Clic). But I keep on looking for a better program, and I stumbled upon a couple impressive ones a few days ago in a list of freeware tools.

Icon Edit stands out because in addition to letting the user edit icons, it also supports storing more than one icon in the same .ico file. This would come in handy when I come up with a good design for a large icon, but it doesn't scale down well so I'd like to add another icon to be used when a small icon is needed.

On the other hand, PixelToolbox doesn't seem to support multiple icons in a the same file (I could be wrong about this, I haven't studied the program in depth), but it does have an extensive set of editing tools, and it will even let the user import from another program. So even if I can't find the tool I'm looking for it in PixelToolbox, I could create the graphic in another program (such as my favorite vector editor Inkscape), and then import it into PixelToolbox. And if I wanted to combine it with another icon into a single file, I could probably use Icon Edit to bring in and combine icons created with PixelToolbox.

If I discovered that I could do this all in just one free program, I'd just use one program. But all of these programs that I've found have different strengths and weaknesses, so I just try to use the best tool for each situation. And I can typically edit an icon created in one program with another, so I have some flexibility. (I wrote "typically" because some icon editors are limited to manipulating certain color depths or dimensions.)

Even If You're Paranoid They Still Might Be Out To Get You?

My favorite source of Science Fiction entertainment news, Sci Fi Wire, recently added an article about Tim Robbins working on a new movie adaptation of George Orwell's 1984. I haven't read it recently, but I have a vague recollection Orwell's classic science fiction novel. Either Robbins remembers the book differently, or he sees the present differently that I do. (I suspect it's the latter.)

"In the book, Big Brother says we're not really concerned about 85 percent of the people, because they're so stupefied by poverty and overwork that they're never going to be part of the problem," Robbins said. "What they're really worried about is the other 15 percent."

Robbins added: "When we think about the authoritarian world that Orwell painted, the catchphrases are one thing, but when you read the book again, the specifics and relevance for now are stunning."

Robbins wouldn't tell the site whether he wanted to act in the movie. Whether the film actually happens is "really a matter of whether I can raise the money for it," he said. "We'll see if there's an appetite for it. Orwell may have been 20 years off, but I know that I find it incredibly relevant."

So the "specifics and relevance are now stunning", and he finds "it incredibly relevant"? How exactly does he find it relevant?

Does that mean that Robbins believes that 85 percent of our population is "so stupefied by poverty and overwork"? Maybe he thinks that only 60 percent of the population is stupefied. I'd agree that people are often hoodwinked, but that doesn't require them to be impoverished overworked. Being tricked only requires hearing a lie that sounds like the truth. Also being dazed and dazzled is much worse than just choosing the lesser of two evils. I don't view most people as being idiots at all. That's just me. But since I'm not a celebrity, what would I know?

I'm pretty sure that I'm neither impoverished nor overworked (and I'm pretty sure most other people aren't either), but I doubt I'll spend any money on a movie made by someone with such a poor opinion of the general public. If you think most people are either poor, so overworked they can't think correctly, or just plain stupid, I guess you should go see his movie. And if you're among the possibly 85% of the public that's stupefied, I'm sure you're too overworked or poor to be able to see it anyway. Sorry for getting your hopes up.

(For the record, I've always preferred Animal Farm to 1984, but that might be just because I read Animal Farm first.)

Firefly, Sci-Fi, and The Inside

Friday, July 22, Firefly is returning to TV (well, cable actually). They haven't produced any more episodes but the Sci-Fi Channel is doing it Joss's way this time. It's kind of like the Director's Cut. Sci-Fi plans to show all of the episodes (includes the 3 that the Fox TV network didn't get around to airing) and even in the right order. First, they'll start with the 2-hour original pilot. Then, they'll show the "second pilot" (which Fox showed first). And so on in the order that the writers intended. In case you haven't guessed, I think it's a great plan! (This was first officially announced with a Sci-Fi wire entry in June. I actually heard about it before then, but I was afraid it was too good to be true. It should be a terrific way to promote the Serenity movie that extends the story of the Firefly universe).

In other TV news, it's all new episodes of Stargate: SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica tomorrow. It's been a while since there were new episodes. I hope I remember who all of the characters are. ;)

Also, apparently Fox has pretty much cancelled another cool show before it had a chance to shine. I wasn't so sure about The Inside after the first couple episodes, but I thought it was pretty interesting to begin with and it just keeps getting better. The episode yesterday was pretty awesome. It's not that I care about the gory stuff in the show for myself (e.g., I can continue eating dinner while they show an autopsy scene), but it might cause some people to tune out. So I wonder if the sure might have a little better chance to succeed if they had dialed down the grossness factor.

Oh, well, I guess they'll air some more of the episodes and then release The Inside Complete Series on DVD that'd include some un-aired episodes, too. I guess I'll look for it at the store. If it's a good price, it might buy it. I've already missed one of the episodes (I forgot it was on). Maybe they'll even re-run that episode. Anything could even happen (but it'd be very unlikely that Fox renews the show).

Flat Tax vs. National Sales Tax

I find the current income tax system to be an utter waste of time. I've heard of more than one drastic proposal that I think would be better than the current system. My favorite is replacing the entire income tax system with a national sales tax (it's called the "FairTax" by Americans for Fair Taxation). So I was sad to read Dick Armey being unfair to the idea of a national sales tax in his testimony to before the President’s Commission on Tax Reform:

Of the proposals for reform, the flat tax best meets these goals. While other proposals, such as the national sales tax, may be efficient tax collecting mechanisms, we should not introduce such a powerful tax collecting regime on the country until the 16th Amendment to the Constitution is repealed—otherwise, we will then have both a national sales tax and a federal income tax, a regime very similar to the dangerous combination of taxing powers that has enabled European governments to grow so large. Repealing constitutional amendments has been very difficult historically. In the mean time, those in favor of scrapping the current code should work toward enacting the flat tax.

Who's saying that we should have both a national sales tax and an income tax? If we couldn't get rid of the income tax, I wouldn't favor enacting a sales tax. Who has come out in favor of such a plan? That wouldn't make any sense to me. On the other hand, I don't see how the flat tax is any safer from the possibility that it rolls back into a labyrinth of special loopholes for political favors.

If you want to criticize the FairTax, please use economics rather than politics. Politics is the problem with the current system. The biggest hurdle to implementing either the flat tax or the national sales tax are all of the special interests that are paid off in the current tax code.

The best thing would be to scrap the income tax and use the FairTax instead. If we have to settle for a flat income tax, that'd still be a tremendous improvement over that current monstrosity known as the tax code. But I'd rather aim for the skies. There's no legal reason why Congress can't end the income tax right away. I see the need to wait 20 years until the 16th Amendment is repealed. It's not like Congress even waited for the 16th Amendment to tax the income of Americans in the first place.

The official Serenity trailer was released!

I've already blogged on Serenity, but that was before Universal Studios released a trailer this week. Wow! I imagined it would be terrific, but it was better than expected! It looks like science fiction set 500 years from now with Western action, Chinese culture, mystery, poignant characters, and humor all wrapped into one fantastic package. It worked so well in the TV show that I know it'll work in the feature film.

Having this much anticipation, I'm going to have a hard time waiting until September for the real thing. I read a rumor that Firefly TV show DVD sales just jumped this week by about 150 place on Amazon (to #27). I wouldn't be surprised. I already have a complete series boxset, and I'm tempted to buy another.

28,984 Browncoats and counting: become one today.

I'm a RedStater now.

A few months ago I stumbled upon RedState, a Republican/conservative community blog. There's a lot of interesting topics being discussed there. Every member gets a diary. The most interesting diary entries get promoted to a story.

I haven't posted many entries in my diary yet since I've been wanting to get a feel for what the community is interested in before I get too many people ticked off with obnoxious entries. But I have been reading RedState a lot and commenting on some of the other people's posts.

I still plan to post non-political entries here at Technocracy Unleashed, but I'll probably be posting most of my political thoughts in my RedState diary.

Why restaurant staff usually don't sing "Happy Birthday to You"

Have you been in a restaurant when someone is celebrating a birthday and noticed that instead of singing the popular "Happy Birthday to You", they sing some chant like "Happy, happy birthday, hope you dreams come true, ..." instead? Ever wonder why that is? It's probably due to copyright law.

Sure it's possible that the waiters and waitresses can't carry a tune. But it's much more likely that the management realizes that "Happy Birthday to You" is still under copyright (until 2030) and they'd rather sing (or chant) something else than worry about paying royalties for the modern classic "Happy Birthday to You".

According to snopes.com:

Does this mean that everyone who warbles "Happy Birthday to You" to family members at birthday parties is engaging in copyright infringement if they fail to obtain permission from or pay royalties to the song's publisher? No. Royalties are due, of course, for commercial uses of the song, such as playing or singing it for profit, using it in movies, television programs, and stage shows, or incorporating it into musical products such as watches and greeting cards; as well, royalties are due for public performance, defined by copyright law as performances which occur "at a place open to the public, or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered." So, crooning "Happy Birthday to You" to family members and friends at home is fine, but performing a copyrighted work in a public setting such as a restaurant or a sports arena technically requires a license from ASCAP or the Harry Fox Agency (although such infringements are rarely prosecuted).

ABC Music Notation File Format

Just the other day, I became aware of a terrific music file format called ABC. Apparently, it's been around for a many years, but I didn't even realize it existed. I haven't spent a lot of time using it, but so far it seems pretty cool.

It reminds me of GWBASIC/QBASIC's PLAY command, but ABC is much more powerful. Apparently, it was originally created to describe traditional music (melody-only). Fortunately for piano and ensemble enthusiasts, extentions have been added to allow polyphonic harmony.

There are various freeware and Open Source programs out there that support ABC. Many of them haven't been updated recently, but I've found that they still work pretty well (some patience and trial-and-error is required, though). The open-source program iabc tries to bring together many functions under one roof, but I had trouble getting it to work right. There are some shareware and commercial programs that allude to fancy GUI editors and integrated approaches, but I haven't checked them out yet.

Home Pages

• ABC Sourceforge project
• New home of old ABC home page
• Old ABC home page

Command-line program websites:

• abcMIDI: converts ABC Music (.abc) into MIDI Music (.mid) files
• abcm2ps: converts ABC Music (.abc) into a PostScript (.ps) document
• Ghostscript: converts PostScript (.ps) into Portable Document Format (.pdf)

John Chambers' tutorial:

• Primer
• Voices
• Site Map

Steve Mansfield's tutorial:

• Notation
• Notation, part 2
• Extentions

BarFly's comparison of multivoice extentions

Sample Windows batch file to produce a MIDI and a .ps file:

set abcfile=i:\media\midi\mysong
erase %abcfile%.mid
cd \prgfiles\abc\abcm2ps
abcm2ps.exe %abcfile%.abc
copy out.ps %abcfile%.ps
cd \prgfiles\abc\abcmidi
abc2midi.exe %abcfile%.abc -o %abcfile%.mid
pause

Enterprise: Ripped from the headlines

Spoiler Warning

This entry is about the Vulcan Arc in Star Trek: Enterprise (season 4). If you plan on watching the episodes The Forge, Awakening, or Kir'Shara, you should probably read this later because my analysis includes spoilers.

I came up with this theory just from watching the episodes, but it seems so obvious to me that someone else must have already noticed this. The writers may have even already admitted their source for the general plot. This is certainly not the first time a Star Trek plot has been influenced by real life events, but I never noticed such a propagandist bent before. But maybe I'm just imagining it.


Where have I seen these characters before?

V'Las represents the demonic warmonging caricature of George W Bush that liberals voted against on Election Day. (Of course, I almost didn't recognize him since I see Bush as the valiant leader we need to keep our country safe, but that's another topic...) V'Las is crazy with his need for violence and power. He lies as easily as breathing. He's an enemy of peace and a traitor to his world. Many people who have called for Bush's impeachment would say that V'Las is the spitting image of Bush.

The Syrrannites are the Muslims that are supposedly oppressed by the Patriot Act and TSA screeners. The Syrrannites are very peaceful and thoughtful. They just want to practice their religion out in the desert. They probably even meditate towards Mecca several times a day. Then, the intolerant Vulcans blew up their caves. Of course, the caves don't represent Afghanistan since everyone was in favor of that war.

Hopefully, you see where I'm going with this. Okay, then. Let's speed this up then.

Enterprise: The human embassy was destroyed at the beginning of the arc by terrorists.
Real life: Terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Enterprise: The Vulcan leaders secretly attacked the embassy themselves.
Real life: The "Blame American First" crowd claim: (a) we invited the terrorists kill us through our greed and lack of compassion, (b) Bush know we were going to be attacked and lets it happen, or (c) all of the above.

Enterprise: V'Las leads Vulcan to war against the Andorians with lies.
Real life: Liberals say things like "Bush mislead us into war" and call Bush a liar.

Enterprise: The Andorians didn't have the Xindi super-weapon.
Real life: The U.S. never found Saddam's WMD's.

Enterprise: The human's vessel Enterprise was situated between the innocent Andorians from the aggressive Vulcans.
Real life: The "Human Shields" in Iraq offered to protect schools and hospitals.

Enterprise: Surak (the father of Vulcan logic)
Real life: Michael Moore (the father of modern liberal propaganda)

Enterprise: Kir’Shara (legendary writings)
Real life: Fahrenheit 9/11 (fictional documentary)

At the end of the third episode, V'Las's clandestine Romulan friend probably represents a Saudi prince (as in "blood for oil"), but he could also represent the Pope. Which would be more sinister to liberals: Gigantic Oil (an alliance between the Big Oil companies and the Mideast reservoirs) or Super Jesusland (evangelical protestants and observant Roman Catholics acting a single majority voting bloc)?

So who represents John Kerry? I'm not sure he's there. Perhaps he's some peaceful Vulcan such as T'Pau. Maybe Archer was supposed to be John Kerry. Then T'Pol would have to be John Edwards. It doesn't really matter. The point is that Bush didn't win in this allegory because Bush respresent evil to the liberals and everyone knows that good always triumphs over evil in the Star Trek universe. (I'm sure the plot was developed before November 2, and it may have even been filmed before the election.)

I'm not against using current events as inspiration for art. But at least don't use the wacko off-the-wall liberal view of the world when you're doing it. I've been a fan of Star Trek for a long time, but I'm no longer a fan of the Enterprise series. I'll probably keep watching for a while, but it's more laughable than enjoyable.

By the way, they really should have given Michael Moore a "story by" credit to be fair.

John Kasich For President in 2008

I don't know if John Kasich is contemplating about running in 2008, but I think he'd be a good successor to the GWB era. I saw him speaking on the O'Reilly Factor (I guess it was the Thursday edition) about what Bush should undertake in the next four years, and he appears to understand the conservative principals that led George W. Bush to win a second term.

Some people have suggested that next Republican nominee would be Rudy Giuliani (former mayor of New York) or Arnold Schwarzenegger (assuming a change in the Constitution to allow someone of foreign birth to be elected). That very well may happen, but it's possible that the Democrats would offer a candidate who would be hard to distinguish from a New York or California Republican. In that case, I might support the Constitution party candidate instead of the Republican party. Bush has demonstrated that the Republican party doesn't need to be afraid of being conservative. According to the exit polls from Tuesday (if you happen to believe them), Americans like having a President who is concerned with moral issues. A Pro-Choice candidate could win the nomination, but lose the election. (Many Democratic voters are actually Pro-Life. You'd never guess it from the Democrats who are elected. Out in the cities and towns, many Democrats are actually concerned about moral issues.)

I suspect the GOP would have a better chance at winning in November with a conservative candidate from a swing state such as Ohio or Florida. Kasich represented Ohio for many years in the House of Representatives. I'm not opposed to Florida Governor Jeb Bush as a candidate, but I'm not sure if Americans are in favor of a Bush Dynasty in the White House (GHWB, Clinton [oops], GWB, Jeb?). It might be a good idea allow the Bush family a break from national office. I haven't put a calculator to it, but I'd think that Jeb'd still be plenty young in 2012 or 2016. And there's always the potential for George P. Bush to follow in his uncle and grandfather's footsteps someday in the not-so-distant future. Also, I wonder if Jeb actually has presidential aspirations (he would know better than most that's it's an extremely difficult job). Could he really want to leave Florida's great climate for D.C.?

Since Kasich actually had a brief campaign for President back in 2000, he might be interested in running again. The end of his speech when he dropped out epitomizes that he fully grasps what has made Bush such a good President (before he was even elected):

But I'm also very excited with the fact that I'm going to make it a top priority to fight and work for the election of my friend George Bush to the White House in 2000. And I want to tell you that it's an easy decision for me, because George Bush is a man who believes in bottom up. He does believe in the power of people. You think I haven't been watching him cut taxes, provide for strengthening of faith-based institutions, the need to stand up for people who rarely get stood up for, the need to stand up for people who rarely get stood up for, to end the polarization in America, to end the division that we have. And George Bush's term of compassionate conservative really kind of defines exactly what John Kasich is all about. And many times when I watched the governor delivering a speech or an interview on television, I swear I could have turned the sound down and put my own voice in there. And so I feel as though I have a soul brother. I've got somebody that sees this future for our country the same way that I do. And I'm very privileged and honored today to have George Bush with us and I'd like for him to come out on the stage.

And as John doesn't have any Presidents in his immediate family, he shouldn't be as much of a lightning rod for wacko conspiracy theories as a third Bush candidate would be.

More info on Kasich (it's somewhat dated, but I think the essence is still accurate):

• New Century Project
• Issues2000

Correction: Osama endorsed "Anybody but Bush"

I made some mistakes in my analysis of ObL's latest statement on Saturday. I didn't realize I was reading a small excerpt from a 18-minute speech. I thought I was reading the whole thing. Oops.

First off, I'm less sure that he knows what's going on in America. He may be a subscriber to the New York Times, but it's more clear that somebody sent him a copy of Fahrenheit 9/11 (and he actually fell for the all of the lies).

Also, apparently a key word from his statement may have been mistranslated by most media sources. He should take a hint from the Unabomber and Michael Moore and release his propaganda in plain English.

I'm just glad that I'm voting for the candidate that ObL is trying to scare me into voting against. It's clear that Bush is the candidate that terrorists like the least. And his strength on national defense is why I like Bush the most. I would've voted for Bush before this statement came out, and I'm not letting some wannabe movie star dissuade me.

Osama bin Laden announced his endorsement: No One

Osama bin Laden made a new home video to discuss the U.S.'s election next week.

He denies the accusations of hating freedom. Yeah, right. He believes you're free to do anything you want, but he'll shoot you if it goes against the Koran.

Also, he seems to be endorsing the administration of former President George H. W. Bush. The translation was unclear. I think ObL was trying to confuse us with that one.

But I don't think that was his main point. His main point is he plans to kill us regardless of who wins the election: "Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al-Qaida. Each state that doesn't mess with our security has automatically secured their security." Maybe he prefers Nader. I don't really know.

Osama and his al-Qaida buddies are aware we're having an election on Tuesday. They read the newspapers. (They're probably even conducting polls and focus groups to predict the outcome.) Certainly, he's trying to affect the outcome of the election. But he can't just come out and ask us to vote for Candidate A or Candidate B because the typical American voter would vote for the candidate that he doesn't endorse (if we believed that's what he meant). Apparently, he's trying to say he's just as scared of Kerry as he is of Bush. I guess he doesn't miss his old pad in Afghanistan. Maybe the new cave has a pool. But I digress...

If you want evidence of who ObL would really endorse, I'd suggest you watch the "Kerry On Iraq" documentary that the Bush campaign produced. For example (from the transcript):

"I voted to threaten the use of force to make Saddam Hussein comply with the resolutions of the United Nations." (Sen. John Kerry, Remarks At Announcement Of Candidacy, Patriot’s Point, SC, 9/2/03)

...

"But the president and his advisors did not do almost anything correctly in the walk-up to the war. They rushed to war. They were intent on going to war. They did not give legitimacy to the inspections. We could have still been doing inspections even today, George." (ABC’s "This Week," 10/12/03)

If I were a terrorist, I'd vote for the man who's a dove because the hawk might send a missle into my current cave or bunker. I wouldn't be impressed by those who "vote to threaten the use of force" or "would still [be] doing inspections even today". I'd be afraid of the man who'd risk his chance of re-election by waging war against me and my terrorist neighbors.

By the way, Kerry want to give nuclear fuel to Iran. Iran is a member of both the "Axis of Evil" and OPEC. They don't need nuclear fuel for fuel. They want nuclear fuel for terrorism or war. If ObL is registered to vote (perhaps he votes by absentee ballot), he's voting for Kerry. Ten out of ten terrorists vote against Bush.

Praying for Rain

The state polls seem to be hinting at another nail-biter of a U.S. election. At this point, butterflies flapping their wings and drops of rain can make the election swing one way or the other. Even if it doesn't rain anywhere in the country on Tuesday, George W. Bush can win it fair and square. But he fairly won the election in 2000, and it still took several weeks for Mr. Gore to conceed his loss (for the second time). This time, I'd like to see not only a win for Bush, but also a solid, uncontroversial win.

The best way for that to happen would be rain in Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, New Hampshire, Pennsylvannia, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Hey, rain could even be a factor in Hawaii (I heard Dick Cheney is visiting Honolulu tomorrow). Rain probably isn't very likely in New Mexico for meteorological reasons, but Bush is likely to win there anyways. In the case of rain, we'd expect some less enthusiastic voters to stay home, such as lukewarm voters and voters who only want to vote against Bush (instead of for the Democratic nominee). A strong win vs. a narrow win in these states could mean the difference between months of legal wrangling and Supreme Court appeals and a quick victory for the candidate with the most support.

Now, I don't want to disenfranchise anyone, so I'm not endorsing hurricanes or flash floods. I don't want anyone to be physically unable to make it to the ballot box. But I think if enough people in "swing states" are looking for their umbrellas on November 2, we'll know who our next president is when we wake up on November 3.

I'm sure that Kerry's campaign staff would tell me that actually Kerry's support runs deeper, but I won't believe that unless I see it. The polls I've seen indicate that most of the people who plan to vote for Kerry prefer him because his name isn't "George W. Bush". Many people strongly support Bush. Few people actually like Kerry. It takes a lot of campaigning to get people to vote for someone they dislike especially if they'll get wet in the process.

John Howard is re-elected in Australia

Over the weekend, Australia re-elected John Howard.

Hooray for Australian voters!

Australia's Prime Minister John Howard says he is "humbled" after winning a fourth term in office.

With 70% of the votes counted in Saturday's election, results indicate Mr Howard's Liberal-National coalition has won an easy majority over Labor.

I'm confident that Australian voters chose the best candidate for a safer Australia despite the view of John Kerry's sister:

Diana Kerry, younger sister of the Democrat presidential candidate, told The Weekend Australian that the Bali bombing and the recent attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta clearly showed the danger to Australians had increased.

"Australia has kept faith with the US and we are endangering the Australians now by this wanton disregard for international law and multilateral channels," she said, referring to the invasion of Iraq.

Asked if she believed the terrorist threat to Australians was now greater because of the support for Republican George W. Bush, Ms Kerry said: "The most recent attack was on the Australian embassy in Jakarta -- I would have to say that."

John Howard has been a strong ally of the United States in the War in Iraq, and I view his re-election as an indication that Australia continues to be a loyal ally of the America.

Thanks, Australia.

Armed with spitballs?

Democrat Sen. Zell Miller addressed the Republican National Convention a few weeks ago:

And, no pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often than the two Senators from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.

Together, Kennedy/Kerry have opposed the very weapons system that won the Cold War and that is now winning the War on Terror.

Listing all the weapon systems that Senator Kerry tried his best to shut down sounds like an auctioneer selling off our national security but Americans need to know the facts.

The B-1 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, dropped 40% of the bombs in the first six months of Operation Enduring Freedom.

The B-2 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered air strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hussein's command post in Iraq.

The F-14A Tomcats, that Senator Kerry opposed, shot down Khadifi's Libyan MIGs over the Gulf of Sidra. The modernized F-14D, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered missile strikes against Tora Bora.

The Apache helicopter, that Senator Kerry opposed, took out those Republican Guard tanks in Kuwait in the Gulf War. The F-15 Eagles, that Senator Kerry opposed, flew cover over our Nation's Capital and this very city after 9/11.

I could go on and on and on: Against the Patriot Missile that shot down Saddam Hussein's scud missiles over Israel, Against the Aegis air-defense cruiser, Against the Strategic Defense Initiative, Against the Trident missile, against, against, against.

This is the man who wants to be the Commander in Chief of our U.S. Armed Forces?
U.S. forces armed with what? Spitballs?

Twenty years of votes can tell you much more about a man than twenty weeks of campaign rhetoric.

Campaign talk tells people who you want them to think you are. How you vote tells people who you really are deep inside.

Hmm. I'd rather my country have some weapons than be defenseless. But that's just my opinion.

... then you are a Republican

From Arnold Schwarzenegger's speech at the Republican National Convention:

If you believe that government should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government ... then you are a Republican!

If you believe a person should be treated as an individual, not as a member of an interest group ... then you are a Republican!

If you believe your family knows how to spend your money better than the government does ... then you are a Republican!

If you believe our educational system should be held accountable for the progress of our children ... then you are a Republican!

If you believe this country, not the United Nations, is the best hope of democracy in the world ... then you are a Republican!

And, ladies and gentlemen ... if you believe we must be fierce and relentless and terminate terrorism ... then you are a Republican!

I guess that makes me a Republican.

Well said, Mr. Governor.

Bush is ahead in the polls!

I've got a couple guesses on why Bush is ahead in the latest polls.


Who speaks clearly about the defense of America?

John Kerry at the UNITY 2004 Conference:

I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side and lives up to American values in history.

George W Bush at the Republican National Convention:

Do I forget the lessons of September 11th and take the word of a madman, or do I take action to defend our country? Faced with that choice, I will defend America every time.

Whose economic judgement do you trust?

John Kerry at Democratic National Convention:

The story of people struggling for health care is the story of so many Americans. But you know what, it's not the story of senators and members of Congress. Because we give ourselves great health care and you get the bill.

George W Bush at the Republican National Convention:

To be fair, there are some things my opponent is for -- he's proposed more than two trillion dollars in new federal spending so far, and that's a lot, even for a senator from Massachusetts. To pay for that spending, he is running on a platform of increasing taxes -- and that's the kind of promise a politician usually keeps.

Serenity: the Firefly Movie

In the fall of 2002, there was a wonderful television show called Firefly. Only 15 episode were made, but each one was a work of art. I watched every episode from the first episode one aired to the last one aired. I bought the DVD set went it went on sale. I've watched each episode repeatedly, and I haven't gotten bored of them yet.

Universal Studios is currently producing a new "episode" (actually it's probably more like three or four episodes). It's called Serenity and it's going to be great! The planned release date is April 22, 2005. Find out more information by becoming a Browncoat.

Update: 11/23/2004

Serenity Delayed Is Not Serenity Denied. The release date for Serenity has been pushed back to September 30, 2005, but I'll still be there. Ostensibly, this will benefit the film since it will have less competition than the crowded late spring and summer calendar.