Arbitrary Secondaries

This has moved well past “a few bad apples” to a shameful institutional problem. We used to uphold the highest standards, but now, many only care that our standards are a half notch above those of the terrorists we proclaim as fully evil.

“In the three years since 9-11, the Administration has yet to arrive at a clear definition of the enemy or the aim in the War on Terrorism; to date, American policy has combined ambitious public statements with ambiguity on critical particulars.”

Former Doobie says, “I’m told I make a very good bad guy.” I’ve been told the same thing.

It’s not a fear of flying, or terrorism. It’s a fear of the Atlanta Police, who’ve arrested (and even body slammed) three women recently, claiming they were all violent. If you see a cop at the Atlanta airport, assume the worst, because they are living up to it.

“If you ask for more copy it will be sent as a .jpg. If you ask for images they will send powerpoint presentations”

A year after an inmate died “handcuffed behind his back, bound at the feet, held down by five or six burly deputies and pleading for his life while being Tased repeatedly” (all on video) there’s no charges ... but Jennifer got slapped with a felony in 4 weeks

A version of this, with code snippets from the brain trust at TextDrive

Oh, my. I said if Congress went nuclear, their approval rating could drop below 30%. I had no idea ... they are already there (29%). Even the majority of Republicans disapprove

We learn the origin is “dudesman,” meaning scarecrow ... but I’m shocked by the omission of The Modified ‘Dude’, as in “PhotoDude”

“In three months, District Attorney Paul Howard is losing almost 12 percent of his 42 investigators and 102 prosecutors”

“Twenty-four-hour news channels, desperate for even more coverage, will conspire with NASA to alter Earth’s orbit, creating a 25-hour day. Fox News’s attempt to create a 26th hour will result in volcanic eruptions, and Bill O’Reilly will perish in a lava flow.”

Here’s the pages for mine; Chambliss, Isakson, and McKinney

“Even if you don’t shoot, we want to know that, in a pinch, you can reload our M-16 rifles for us.”

Blog Lesson #1 - hotlinking someone else’s image on the home page of your $5 million start-up will get you burned. You’re lucky their replaced image was nice ... I would have fed you something really embarrassing

“The investigation shows the military intelligence officers in charge of the detention centre at Bagram airport were redeployed to Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003, while still under investigation for the deaths of two detainees months earlier”

“The participants are an eclectic group -- moderates, centrists, mavericks and institutionalists -- who have come together in the hope of preserving a working center in the Senate at a time when the political forces keep pulling politicians away from it.” I’d love to see a dozen centrists thwart both parties.

You’ve probably seen incomprehensible warning dialogs from Windows ... here’s one from the Mac

Not the usual link, this is just me passing some Google Juice on to a client’s site.

“Reverse the party labels and the circumstances are strikingly similar.”

“Disapproval of Congress’s performance is higher than it has been since 1994, the year voters swept Democrats out of power on Capitol Hill” ... and the current shenanigans will only make it worse

“The queen buys PhotoDude.” Ewwww.

“The three-page memorandum, dated Jan. 19, 2003, says that only Muslim chaplains and Muslim interpreters can handle the holy book, and only after putting on clean gloves in full view of detainees.”

“Desire, devotion, performance, production: look to the worker and to the work, not to the credentials on the door, for evidence of seriousness.”

“Bring Jennifer home to your house for that Spicy and Uncertain feeling that only she can bring.”

“As federal prosecutors target physicians who prescribe large doses of pain-killing drugs because they can also be abused, doctors are increasingly afraid to provide relief for sick people with intractable pain.”

“By reading the blogs on TV, the 24-hour cable channels have combined the visual pizzazz of a text file with the deep insight of a 90-second cable segment.”

“You should have your shit together before pushing it to TextDrive. Develop on your local machine, push to TextDrive when it works.” Or pay more $$$’s for a dedicated server where you don’t impact others, and they don’t impact you.

After a lengthy effort, he’s now completed his mission of pissing off each of the 8 Gazillion bloggers, one by one. Congrats! ... can you retire now?

“It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction.”

A horrid tale about “Our Friends” the Saudis, and how they imprisoned and tortured Brits while denying Al Qaeda could set off car bombs in Saudi Arabia ... until 9 attacked in Riyadh in May, 2003.

$75 billion in profits will get a taxable rate of about 5% instead of 35%. Why? It was part of the “American Jobs Creation Act,” yet these companies are cutting employees, and “the I.R.S. lacks the resources to challenge the companies effectively.” Over $20 Billion in tax revenue, more than has been spent on reconstruction in Iraq, down the tubes.

“it gives some sense of comfort to its users at the expense of others’ resources” ... a good collection of resources and links on this hot topic among web/application authors

It’s prefetching behavior can play havoc in web apps. Its attempt to pre-load a “Delete” link has proven disasterous for some.

Colorful Chinese money, suitable for burning, from BWG: “Common on the faces of all Hell Bank Notes is the image of the Emperor of the Afterworld: the Lord of Hell.”

“a case in which a certain Fulton County District Attorney’s Office prosecutor was found by the court to have ‘played fast and loose with her ethical duties’ under the Constitution.” Sounds like perfect qualifications for her current gig.