This weeks New York Times Magazine has an excelent article by Michael Ignatieff entitled Lesser Evils. I would highly recomend that anyone who cares about the current situations of civil liberties, the war on terror, and governmental control should read this and think about it.

This is the first article I have seen that seems to take a balanced approach to our current situation. He argues that it may be necessary to inflict the “lesser evils” for the “greater good.” I am not convinced of all of his arguments however I strongly agree with the argument he makes throughout the article regarding “transparency.”

No matter what the government is allowed to, the system must be designed to allow for transparency; this is the key to democracy. The people must be allowed to scrutinize the actions of their representatives in order to be informed. The media cannot shy away from things “in the name of national security.” It just doesn’t work that way. Secrecy is the cornerstone of governmental excesses.

Go read, comment.

You may notice a slight difference in the look of my journal. No, I haven’t changed my MT templates. To be honest, I has sick and tired of fighting with MT’s templates. Don’t get me wrong, I think MT is a good piece of software, but there are way too many templates to keep track of and keep in sync. It also has the downside of the whole “rebuilding” process.

So I have been off and on looking for a new solution. I found WordPress. It is PHP based and backed up by MySQL. The big departure from MT is that where MT generates static html pages, WordPress generates all the pages on the fly right from the database. And it only has one template I need to mess with. ::sigh:: It was able to import all my entries from MT, so I didn’t loose anything although the links did change.

Let me know what you think.

This past sunday was quite eventful! The TA for the class Elizabeth and I are taking this semester, Jennifer, mentioned to me that she was the “bus captain” for the William & Mary chapter of VOX’s trip to the March for Woman’s Lives in Washington DC. It sounded like a fun and important event, so Elizabeth and I decided to go. Read on for more.

Sunday morning at 5:30am we rolled out of bed and got ready to go. We arrived at PBK hall on campus around 6:40 to find a small group already congregating (most nursing coffees). Jennifer showed up a few minutes later and conscripted Elizabeth and I to hand out maps of the National Mall area. People filtered in over the next 15 minutes and we were ready to go.

Given that the event organizers were expecting upwards of 750,000 people, the plan was to take the bus to RF Stadium outside of DC and then take the metro in to the Mall. As we got close to RFK, I started noticing busses converging from all directions. It took us over half an hour to get from the entrance to the stadium to the actual parking lot. People had bussed in from across the country (I saw busses from Chicago and New York.)

Leaving the bus, we joined the throngs of people (pictures will be linked at the end) moving towards the Metro station. We passed numerous “purveyors of capitalism” selling every imaginable kind of t-shirts, buttons, and food just in the half mile to the Metro station. Among the marchers, the signs and excitement had already begun.

After shuffling down into the Metro station and getting to the L’Enfant station, we all pilled out and made our way back above ground. By this point, Jennifer, Elizabeth, and I had lost all but two other of our group. We headed towards the mall passing trucks passing out signs, buttons, beach balls, and weird tubey things you are supposed to make noise with. It was a zoo.

Each group that had registered for the event had a designated spot on the Mall. Jennifer found one of the “purple people” (volunteers who knew stuff) and found that we were supposed to head towards sections B3, C3, B4, or C4 which is where the VOX delegations were placed. Instead of trying to wade through the crowds, we walked down one of the street parallel to the Mall towards our spot.

Upon arriving back at the Mall, we saw exactly how much of a zoo this actually was. I have never seen so many people in one place at one time. It was amazing. It was a sea of pink signs waving and cheering at the barely heard speakers on stage. We waded in to our position looking for anyone we recognized; yeh right.

The March itself was supposed to start at noon. It may have; Jennifer was warned that it might take a while before the movement at the beginning of the group would be noticed by those further back. We were near the front of the group, so we got started marching around 12:30. “Moving” translated to walk “three steps, stop, repeat” for about the first half hour. By the time we made it out onto the streets, we started moving, only clumping up when we needed to turn.

The march itself was a very interesting event. I had never done anything like this before, so I didn’t know what to expect. The closest thing I can compare it to is to imagine a high school pep rally (albeit one with hundreds of thousands of people). There were chants, people just making noise, and signs shaking (especially when helicopters went overhead).

There were small contingents of counter-protestors spread along the march route. I found out afterwards that they were organized into “themes” by blocks. There was the mutilated fetus picture section, the religious section, the “I had an abortion and now I regret it” section, the cute baby picture section, and probably some others. The pro-lifers were outnumbered easily 100 to 1. Some of them yelled at us, marchers yelled at them, it was all good fun. (Actually I was amazed to find out after the fact that only 16 people got arrested the whole march. A group of pro-lifers who didn’t have a permit.)

It took maybe 2 hours to get back to the mall after walking the 1 mile march route. I looked back at the march starting point and could see that there were large numbers of people who hadn’t even started walking yet. Amazing. We found a place to sit and rested for a while.

The plan was to get back to the bus by 4:30. We started towards the Metro at about 3:15 or so hoping to get a jump on the crowds. Ha! We went to one of the farther Metro stations and actually got on the Metro easily and even got seats. When the subway arrived at the Metro station closest to the march, the platforms were packed. The poor train conductor kept having to reassure people that there were more trains coming.

After much walking, we made it back to the bus and found that we had about two thirds of our people back. Everyone made it back to the bus by about 5:30 and we got out of the stadium lot by 6:00 or so. We stopped for dinner on the way back and made it back to campus by 10:00.

What a trip. I am thrilled that I went; it was the best $25 I have spent in a while. Thanks to everyone who came, it was fun. Now the links and pictures!

• My photo pages
• Planned Parenthood
• American Civil Liberties Union

I am a digital packrat, especially when it comes to email. I keep everything. I currently have saved approximately 915MB from my personal account and 113MB from my work account. The problem that arises with this many messages is organization. Historically I have been a “sorter.” I try to break out all my messages into categories based on numerous categories; sender, topic, etc. Problems arise both when sorting (which category, what if the message relates to two?) and when looking for a message later.

In the past I have looked at programs that can be used to quickly search through large amounts of email (Zoe being one). The recent announcement and subsequent brouhaha about Google’s GMail has brought the topic to my mind again. Mail.app has relatively good searching and is capable of organizing messages into threads. All good options. The idea being that you don’t try to sort your messages beforehand, you let the computer generate the desired subset on the fly.

So I have decided to conduct an experiment. On my work account, I have undone all my organization and placed all my saved mail into one big folder (aptly named Saved). This will force me to make use of the search features in Mail.app. I may also explore some other tools that will let me quickly move through the thousands of messages I have saved.

The feature I would dearly love Apple to add are “Smart Mailboxes”. Like in iTunes and iPhoto, I would like to be able to create a “folder” that has criteria associated with it. So I could, for example, have a folder that would always contains all the messages I received from my boss; the view would update live based on all the messages I had received.

And I really hope I’m not wrong. If I am, resorting all those messages will be a bitch!

Two events have occurred recently that have me a bit worried:

Microsoft and Sun End Long Acrimony In Surprise Accord

Microsoft Settles InterTrust Patent Suit

Reasons why in the next section.

Both of these legal actions have been pending in the courts for many years; I believe the Sun case dates to before the US antitrust litigation. These cases were some of the few that looked like they might be able to rein in Microsoft after the antitrust litigation ended in the US without much effect at all. (One can hope the EU litigation will have more teeth.) Now they are both done and gone with all the parties happily clutching sums of money that probably dented Microsoft’s bank accounts very little.<p>

My worry that these two settlements happening within two weeks of each other indicate a shift in Microsoft's style. Or more accurately a return to the behavior that got them into trouble in the first place. It seems to me likely that Microsoft is attempting to clear their plate of active litigation rather suddenly. And the cynic in me wonders if the timing is such that the country and the Justice Department will be embroiled in the election cycle around the time people start calling foul again. This would allow them another period of time to stifle competition, "embrace and extend," and generally cause more trouble before they get slapped on the wrist again. So, what other reasons could there be behind these settlements? Was it chance they happened within two weeks of each other?

While helping Braz retrieve Emma’s new bed from Kris’s parents house today, we happened to begin talking about tools. I was relating my experiences building some small tables for our deck that will hold pots of vegetables and herbs. As part of the discussion I came to the realization that I had almost reached the point of having the proper tools for most any job I want to do.

It is an interesting realization. For many years I have enjoyed building things around the house (or apartment), but I would often find myself wanting to do something but not quite having quite the correct tool for the job. But for this latest project, I was properly equipped. For each task I was able to go the shelves and pull out exactly what I needed to do the job.

I even went so far as to create “stations” around the garage. Table saw in one corner, router in another corner, miter saw in yet another corner, and assembly area by the door.

I still see potential tasks for which the tools I currently have will be inadequate, but as my general rule is I am able to buy one new tool for every major project I tackle, I should be able to flesh out my collection.

Tool-nirvana, here I come!

Overall Safari 1.2 is a great thing. Unfortunately, there is one bug that has popped up that is visually annoying that shows up in the wishlist site I have developed. Hopefully, this entry (trackbacked to Surfin Safari) can help get it solved. If you are curious, click below for more.

To start, here is the simplified test page.

Here is a screenshot from Safari 1.2

Here is a screenshot from Camino 0.7

Basically the problem is that the horizontal rule under the floated image is set to “clear: right;” which should cause it to be below the image (as it is in Camino) as opposed to running into the bottom edge of the image (as it does in Safari 1.2).

I am in the process of rebuilding all of the MT templates for this site, so things are going to look quite broken as I am making changes. Move along now, nothing to see here.

• main index page basically completed.

[This is what I can only guess was a book report I wrote for my senior Government class (that would be High School)]

In the United States, the problem of people not voting has become a large problem in recent elections. One that has troubled many people in the nation. The question as to why Americans do not vote is not a question with a simple answer. There are many possible answers that have causes that date back to the founding of our country. The authors of this book give a historical outlook to why Americans do not vote. One of the major blockades to people voting is the registration system in the United States. Although many restrictions have been lowered as a result of different amendments to the Constitution, there is still not an easy way to become registered. In many European countries, the registration process is mandatory and often pushed strongly by the government itself. This is process that the U.S. government leaves to local agencies. This opens up the avenue for political parties to selectively aid different groups to register in order to win a greater percentage of the actual voters.

This problem has a twofold solution. State and local authorities must make it even easier to register by offering the services in more places (as apparently happened in the 1992 election) and then Congress must enact laws that ensure more people are given the opportunity to vote.

Another problem that exists in the country is a largely disproportionate electorate. The demographics of the people who vote is vastly different than that of the overall population. For example, although about 11 percent of the population is african american only 7 percent of the total ballots were cast by african americans. In addition there is a gap in the ernings of the electorate. Nearly 40-45 percent of the vote is cast by people in the top economic third of the while only 20-25 percent of the vote comes from the bottom third.

This problem has its roots in the unfair voting and registration rules of the past. During the period between 1888 and 1924 many southern states and some northern states tried to create a selective electorate. In the south the goal was to disenfranchise the african americans and poor whites while in the north the idea was to “improve” the electorate. This caused a narrowing of views in the major parties which further disenfranchised more people.

Another propblem that has proliferated as the country grows is that the political parties have relied on large generalizations that have few specifics. This is so as to not turn off any specific group of voters. Unfortunately this policy lessens the competition between the two parties therefore creating a lessened interest in the political arena.

This problem is a very far reaching and complicated one that does not have a simple solution. It will require a major change in the political system in this nation. The first step in this process is to increase the voter registration. The easiest way to do this is to require registration when people renew drivers licenses or something of that nature.

Hopefully. if and when these changes are made, the voting population of this country will become more aware of the issues around them.

[Apparently, I wasn’t really happy with the book, so I attached a commentary directed at my Government teacher, Mr. Hollins]

Mr. Hollins,

After reading this book, I can not resist the urge to give you my own opinion on this matter. I resisted doing this in my paper because I did not agree with many of the philosophies that were given in the book. Nevertheless I needed to express my ideas somewhere.

This book contained many facts and figures describing the different political changes over the course of history and the many different changes that took place in the political system and the individual parties, but, to me, it failed to answer the simple question: “Why don’t Americans vote?” As I read I saw all these fancy theories filled with terminoligy that seems to indicate that a lot of knowledge is being conveyed but I saw no ideas that seem to explain why. The authors seemed to concentrate more on giving the facts than on giving an explination.

To me there is a very simple reason that people don’t vote. I agree with the Japanese dignitary that said americans are fat and lazy. I don’t meen it literally, but I do think that a large portion of the population lives on a day to day basis with little concern or care about the political system in general. They only vote when they feer that they are going to lose something or gain something personally. It shows purely an instinctual survival instinct.

I realize that this is a very pessimistic view of the nation but I see very litle evidence that the United States is made up of people who are motivated enough to care about politics. When we are rated thirteenth in terms of scholastic ability compared to other first world nations, I do not find it surprising to see the trends in voter turnout.

I see no point in trying to convince all of the people who don’t vote to vote. If someone doesn’t have enough concern to get themselves registered and then vote, I DON’T want them to vote. I don’t trust their judgement. I really do believe in an elitest theory. An oligarchy sounds very comforting to me if the group in power is made up of the highly educated. I may not always like their decisions, but at least I trust that they are making rational decisions and not voting on a whim.

In the end, I saw this book as a great source of information; but, to me, it did not answer the question that I expected it to do by its title. “Why Americans Don’t Vote?”

[So, there you have it, Jeremy in high school, uncut, unedited, and uncensored. Feel free to rip into it below.]

Computers have been a part of my life for a surprising number of years. I believe I got my first computer in around the sixth grade (that would be an Apple II+). As my handwriting left something to be desired, I started doing much of my schoolwork on the computer. One advantage of the digital nature of my work is that theoretically I can still access it. The reality is that getting data off of decade old 5 1/2 inch disks is quite difficult, but I have finally succeeded. But, tThrough my first eBay purchase, I was able to get a serial card for my IIe which will allow me to transfer the disks to my Mac. And a few other programs that help me convert the old file formats.

So as I find interesting things I will post them here for your enjoyment and amusement.