Computer Death

Well, my computer has reached the point of giving me a

KERNEL_APC_PENDING_DURING_EXIT 

message whenever I exit a large program (OpenOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, World of Warcraft, whatever), and the BIOS has ceased to recognize the existence of my DVD drives, which means I won't even be able to restore my system when Windows craps out.

Looks like I'm going to be learning how to do my writing with a pen and paper again, real soon now, unless a miracle happens and I manage to find money to buy a refurb or used computer somewhere.

Yay. Hurray. Whatever.

An Open Letter to the New Hampshire Victory Fund

When I originally posted this, I erroneously believed that the New Hampshire Victory Fund was affiliated with the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. I have since been informed that the Gay & Lesbian Victory fund DOES NOT have any affiliation with the NH Victory Fund - in fact, they do not have state affiliates of any kind. Not only that, they do not conduct polling, and they are not involved in the Presidential election. Thanks to Denis Dison, from the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, for giving me the correct information, so I could address this more accurately.

I am writing because I received a phone call this evening from a poller who claimed to represent the New Hampshire Victory Fund. The phone call is one I found insulting.

The reason I found the phone call insulting is that your caller began by asking whether I intended to vote for Obama, McCain, or Undecided. The very content of the question is an insult to every single voter who has examined the candidates and determined that he is not willing to give his vote to either, but prefers, instead, to vote for someone else. Ralph Nader, for instance, or George Phillies, or any of the other candidates who DO NOT represent either the fascists from Denver or the socialists from St. Paul.

Not only was your caller's question on the Presidential race an insult to intelligent voters, he followed it up with identical questions on the race for Sununu's Senate seat and my district's House seat. In all three cases, his question identified ONLY the Republican and Democrat candidates, and offered "Undecided" as the ONLY alternative for voters who reject the Republican or Democrat alternatives.

Was it your intention to insult voters in this way, or did you simply not consider that intelligent voters might possibly choose to refuse to throw away their votes by voting for either of the two corporate candidates? You might want to consider that possibility when performing polls in the future, if you want to avoid insulting voters in the future.

File this under: I should know better...

I made the mistake of reading talk.politics.guns today, and am reminded why I unsubscribed from pretty much all usenet news a long time ago. The pro-gun posters were just as bigoted, just as arrogant, and just as obnoxious as the anti-gun posters. Sure, it's easy to forget that the people reading your posts are people, but is that any excuse for making yourself look like an utter ass? Apparently, it is - at least, it is for the people who post on newsgroups.

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Oh, the irony...

NEVER talk to the police!

Professor James Duane (a law professor in Virginia) explains reasons why you should NEVER talk to the police, under ANY circumstances.

Did you know?

In times of war, the U.S. Constitution gives the President the power to ignore the Constitution? Including wars that are not declared, as required under Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution? Apparently, the people who published the copy of the Constitution that I've read neglected to include the portion that gives the President that power. Or maybe it's in a classified section of the Constitution, that's only available to members of the Executive Branch?

Did you know that the President does not condone or authorize torture or inhumane treatment of prisoners? I guess that means that Manadel al-Jamadi, Abed Hamed Mowhoush, and Nagem Sadoon Hatab, among nearly a hundred others, are still alive and well and being treated with basic human dignity? And I guess that means that those photos from Abu Ghraib were just Photoshop jobs? Oh, that's right, that's neither torture nor inhumane treatment - it's "enhanced interrogation techniques." After all, America doesn't torture its prisoners. Never mind that when other countries used the exact same techniques, their officials were charged - by America - with war crimes.

Did you know that the President insists on the preservation of the human rights of all American prisoners? But then again, habeas corpus isn't a human right, apparently.

How do I know all this is true? Because I've been assured so by Nancy Theis, Special Assistant to the President and Director of Presidential Correspondence.

So, from now on, when someone tries to tell me that America is engaged in an illegal war, I'll just point them at that super-secret, classified portion of the Constitution that only the President has access to, that gives him the power to engage in war without the need for a pesky Declaration of War, and without the need to obey any of those pesky rules in the public portion of the Constitution.

And when anyone tells me that America tortures and mistreats its prisoners, I'll just point out to them that it's not torture when America does it - only when other countries do it.

And when anyone tells me that America violates human rights, I'll just point out to them that little things like habeas corpus aren't really human rights after all.

After all, I have been assured this is so by the Assistant to the President. And she wouldn't lie, would she?

If you have fibromyalgia, you are a woman who murdered her unborn child

At least, that's what you are according to Beverly, at Motherhood and other Ramblings.

Not only that, if you have HPV, you are a slut, and if you have HIV, you are a gay man who indulges in unsafe sex. All this, based on the word of a Catholic priest and a child psychiatrist who founded an anti-abortion group in Canada.

So like an HPV diagnosis in someone would almost guarantee that others would know the person's potential morals or lack there of, and HIV almost always denotes a gay man, a diagnosis of fibromyalgia could potentially indicate a woman who has aborted a child. Just a thought.

Here's "just a thought": Beverly is a moralistic bigot who deserves to be considered with the same level of thoughtfulness you'd give to Fred Phelps, George Lincoln Rockwell, or Khallid Abdul Muhammad.

With all the scientific and medical evidence that shows that fibromyalgia is a neurological condition that affects both men and women, the idea that anyone could still spew bigoted, ignorant garbage like that is simply mind-boggling.

My Response...

...to the people who have taken over the Libertarian Party.

If you're interested in a party that is still truly libertarian, follow me to the Boston Tea Party.

Congressional Guidelines for Abusing Women

I knew that men were victimized on a daily basis by the domestic violence industry. What I didn't know is how badly the domestic violence industry abuses those it supposedly protects.