Archive for September 28, 2007

Texas Lawmakers At Work: Why Voters Need To Take Action

September 28, 2007 / / No comments

In Texas, the art of the Quickdraw is not dead.  In fact, the Lawmakers with the quickest voting hands get the most votes.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this video of Texas Lawmakers in action.  This is despicable and illustrates everything that is wrong with U.S. legislatures today.

Don't get me wrong — this isn't a problem with the system, this is a problem with the voters. This is a problem with you and me. We need to get off our asses and stop tolerating this sort of behavior in our government. I'm going to go on a slight tangent here and talk about lobbying, but although it might seem unrelated it isn't.

We vote legislators into office and then they get there they vote themselves salary increases and make sure it's legal for them to take handouts from corporations — of course they claim it doesn't influence their voting.  Riiiiiight.  These people are petty, selfish, and most importantly: They are not looking out for the interests of the people who elected them.

Sticking to the example shown in the video, why are all of those absent legislators absent? Even better, why don't they make a stink over someone else casting their votes?  Let's assume the best scenario: Every absent legislator has a good reason not to be there and every vote case on their behalf is cast along party lines — even when a Republican is leaning over to push a Democrat's voting buttons (in other words, let's assume the Republican pushed YES on his own vote, but pushed NO for his Democrat colleague) is that how we want our country run?  Along party lines?  If that's the case then why even pay these people a salary?  Just let the party with the majority of seats run congress singlehandedly until the next election.

And no, I was not making an actual suggestion.  I think voting along party lines is ridiculous and it is making this country worse every minute.  We need individuals with their own opinions and, more importantly, the drive to make sure the opinions of their constituents are heard. In short, no matter the specific details and facts there is absolutely no excuse for the kind of behavior we see in this video and I strongly suspect this behavior is not restricted only to the Texas State Legislature.

-one 

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Category: Politics /

Just How Nutty is Scott Adams?

September 25, 2007 / / 8 comments
Scott Adams is the creator of the popular comic strip, Dilbert. Personally, I'm a big fan. Dilbert is funny in all the right ways and does a terrific job satirizing what life as a mid-level employee is like in a dog-eat-dog corporate world. Reading the strip one might get the impression its creator is a brilliant, eccentric and cynical man. Most of that is apparently true, although which characteristics are dominant seems to be up in the air.
Those who have seen interviews with Adams or read his blog are probably aware of his propensity for discussing evolution in a combative manner. He often qualifies himself by stating that he's not saying evolution isn't a well-proven fact, but then proceeds to attack it anyway.
Well, just a few days ago he seemed to go off the deep end in another department. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was scheduled to be in New York to speak at the UN and also to debate at Columbia University. Ahmadinejad also requested to lat a wreath at the site of the World Trade Center but was told this wasn't possible due to security concerns.
The Iranian President's visit to New York, as well as all three proposed stops, have caused some outrage among Americans and this in turn apparently sparked outrage in Adams, who railed sarcastically against those who would deny the Iranian President the same freedom of speech they enjoy.
I'm all-for allowing Ahmadinejad to speak freely, but Adams didn't stop there.  He suggested that the Iranian President's comment that "Israel should be wiped off the face of the map" was mistranslated and really just means he wants Israel's government to change some of their policies. Although he is correct that the exact translation can't really be nailed down in English, no one seems to share Mr. Adams' drastically different interpretation of what Mr. Ahmadinejad said.
But Adams didn't stop there. He continued on about one of the Iranian President's other famous comments: That the holocaust is a myth. Adams seems to think that Ahmadinejad meant "Myth" like a parable by which we can learn a valuable life-lesson.  It is unclear why Scott would think this since Ahmadinejad has been quite clear in his beliefs and even hosted a International Holocaust Denier's Seminar last year.
Not content to leave a badly misinformed opinion alone, Adams added a number of further comments which make his opinion of Israel seem to be, well… a bit negative — and that's perfectly fine but coupled with his (woefully false) character un-assassination piece on the Iranian President and his sketchy views on evolution I have to wonder if the guy who has been sitting in the cartoon cubicle next to me all these years is a religious nutbag and I just never noticed.
In the end, Mr. Ahmadinejad did speak at Columbia and he was publicly criticized by University President Lee Bollinger. The Iranian President was hard-pressed to hide his true colors as he hinted at popular (among stupid people) 9/11 conspiracy theories and when asked directly how he could deny the holocaust when it is so well documented he avoided the question entirely and only said that whether or not it happened has nothing to do with the plight of Palestinians.
It's reassuring to know that we, as Americans, weren't seeing only some distorted version of Ahmadinejad handed to us by the media and the government, but disturbing that some otherwise educated public figures refuse to believe the facts and would rather distribute false information to their fans and the world community at-large.
- One 

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Category: Humor, Politics, Science /

Bin Laden Video Fake?

September 14, 2007 / / No comments
According to Robert Vamosi over at CNET, Osama Bin Laden's latest video is fake. The telltale signs lay throughout the video, from the fact that current events are never mentioned by a "live-action" Bin Laden, but are voice-overed still photos to the interesting choice of outfit (the same one worn during a recording 3 years ago).
It certainly seems plausible, but the evidence also seems a bit circumstantial.  Neal Krawetz, the gentleman who appears to have first noticed the discrepancies, points out that the video footage of Bin Laden is taken from an interlaced video source but the text and graphical portion of the screen is not.  This, along with some of his evidence of video splicing, hardly seems interesting since it could very well occur during the normal course of editing a video — not necessarily denoting an attempt at trickery.
It would be interesting to hear what the State Department has to say about this, if any of their experts care to weigh in.  Either way though, kudos to Krawetz for his detective work.  I find the art of detecting video trickery fascinating, it's like a solving an extremely subtle (sometimes) puzzle.  I am a big fan of Ghost Hunters but more often than not I find myself dissecting their evidence like… well, like a Bin laden tape ;-)
- one 

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Category: Politics, Television /
 
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