Tom's Journal
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Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Tom" journal:[<< Previous 10 entries]
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07:17 am
[Link] | According to Wikipedia's homepage today...
Today in 2009 – Carol Ann Duffy was elected Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly bisexual person to hold the position, as well as the first laureate to be chosen in the 21st century.
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05:55 pm
[Link] | Zimmerman attorneys say that Treyvon wasn't shot because he is black or wearing a hoodie but because Treyvon made the mistake of smacking Zimmerman in the face so hard he broke his nose.
http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c3#/video/crime/2012/04/05/bts-piers-zimmerman-attorneys.cnn
That's only half the story. Yes, he absolutely made that mistake but he also made another mistake. He made the mistake of breaking the nose of someone who has super magical powers and is able to go from broken nose bleeding all over the place to absolutely fine in only a few minutes. The fact that he Treyvon picked on someone with magical blood that disappears and doesn't stain clothing is a huge mistake on Treyvon's part.
And how do we know Zimmerman has magical healing ability?
Because the police video a few minutes later showed no such injury:
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-last-word/46887730
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10:25 am
[Link] |
PICC keynote announced: Rebecca Mercuri on "The Black Swan and Information Security"
[Note: "Early-bird" price ends in 3 days! Don't lose the discount! PICC is May 11-12, 2012 in NJ]
The PICC committee is excited to announce our closing keynote speaker:
Rebecca Mercuri on "The Black Swan and Information Security"
Dr. Mercuri is the lead forensic expert at Notable Software, Inc.
Her caseload has included matters from contraband, murder, viruses
and malware, and election recounts (most notably Bush vs. Gore).
She has testified on the federal, state, and local level as well
as to the U.K. Cabinet.
Talk abstract:
The economic theories proposed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book
"The Black Swan" have strong parallels in information security.
Indeed, the concepts of robustness and risk assessment mentioned
in Taleb's writing are also well known to those who design software
and systems intended to withstand attack. Such assaults on computers,
networks and data are now so commonplace that if these threats all
suddenly vanished, this would likely constitute a Black Swan Event.
But whether a successful and novel attack should also be considered
a Black Swan may be debatable. This talk will compare the shortcomings
of bell curve (Mediocristan) and power law (Extremistan) event
models. The idea that outlier occurrences should be considered more
"normal" will shed insight on new methods for recovery mitigation.
Attendees need no formal knowledge of statistics or economics in
order to appreciate the concepts discussed in this talk.
Register now and avoid the rush!
http://picconf.org
Space is limited! Register now!
Note: The opening keynote speaker will be announced in a few days.
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10:19 am
[Link] |
Only forward this to friends that may be sick in the future.
One of the best parts of Obamacare is that health insurance companies can no longer reject you because of "pre-existing conditions". Did you have an auto accident 10 years ago? No healthcare for you. Did you buy allergy medicine once? No coverage for you. Did you (or your wife/girlfriend/mother) have a baby or see a doctor about her cycle? Some companies use that as an excuse to deny coverage.
What is it like to be denied coverage? Sometimes it means that you can't even become their customer. Other times it means you've just got some live-saving surgery and when the bill comes your insurance provider replies, "hey, I know you've been paying your monthly bill on time but we just realized you have a pre-existing condition so.... f--- you we've decided not to pay."
This is no longer legal due to Obamacare.
Romeny and Santorum both promise to repeal 100% of Obamacare. Really? They're going to remove this part too? Up to half of Americans under 65 and as many as 17 million children suffer from a pre-existing condition. That means your parents plus your children, nieces or nephews will be hurt by a repeal.
If you care about this issue please forward this link to your friends that are undecided about voting for Romney and/or Santorum.
http://www.attackwatch.com/the-cost-of-repealing-the-affordable-care-act-people-with-pre-existing-cond
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05:21 am
[Link] |
Jungle Brothers -- Because I Got It Like That, 1988
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/jungle+brothers/because+i+got+it+like+that_20076640.html
Used to be a player, couldn't be trusted
But still in all, I never got busted
A girl in every part of New York City
I thought it was funny, it used to look witty
I had 'em all spread out, even one next door
I had it like that, so what ya askin' for?
4 to 5, you see, was my minimum
And every day, I used to go and get with 'em
One for every hour on the hour
One on the way while I was in the shower
It sounds kinda crazy, it sounds kinda bugged
But you see, Afrika was the one they loved
So you see, it got to a point
where they didn't care
They didn't wanna give me up,
so they agreed to share
1988: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3NRDyuQUWQ
1998: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mDRdsvwEVU
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08:38 pm
[Link] | Short version:
- In 1964 Martin Luther King, Jr was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year.
- In February he spoke at Drew University (I would attend 23 years later).
- You can hear his speech here: http://www.drew.edu/about/history/celebrating-dr-king%E2%80%99s-legacy
- An interesting point about the speech: it was given 5 days before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. The speech ends with a call to action similar to what we hear today ("call your congressperson").
- I heard a recording of that speech when I was working on the New Jersey LGBT civil rights bill in 1991. It changed my life.
- A few months later, in July 1964, protests broke out in the town because of a racist barbershop. Soon after NJ passed a law saying that barber's could not discriminate.
Now you can hear Martin Luther King, Jr's speech:
http://www.drew.edu/about/history/celebrating-dr-king%E2%80%99s-legacy
Longer version:
In 1964, in Madison, New Jersey: So, this racist barber refused service to black people. He didn't have the balls to admit publicly that he was a racist so he cowardly claimed "I just don't have the tools or knowledge to cut that kind of hair".
It was not housing, however, but haircuts that brought Madison to national attention in the spring of 1964. When a black man was refused service in a local barbershop (on the grounds that the white barber did not know how to cut black hair), Drew [University] students and others began picketing the barbershop. It was not long before national television networks sent their cameras and the "barbershop incident" was in full bloom. There was pressure exerted on Grace Church to take some official stance, but action came from Drew students. The Drew civil rights group which had been using meeting rooms in Grace was the subject of an extensive discussion at a vestry meeting quoted from http://www.gracemadison.org/History.aspx
Later that year New Jersey passed a law that to receive a barber license you had to be able to cut hair of white and black people, thus removing this frivolous and cowardly excuse.
While I can find a number of accounts of "the barbershop controversy" I can't find a single one that points out that MLK, Jr. had given a major speech just a few months earlier. I would think there would be a connection.
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06:44 am
[Link] |
New Hampshire Results
NEW HAMPSHIRE RESULTS
First Place: Mitt "I abused my dog" Romney -- Well the party insiders are doing well at maintaining their candidate. The D.C. insider "conventional wisdom" is that it is "Mitt's turn". Sadly he lies constantly and everyone knows it, is stiffer than Gore, conservatives hate him and fundamentalists consider his religion "a cult".
Second Place: Ron Paul. If gay people dream of moving to the utopia that is San Francisco, Libertarians dream of moving to New Hampshire. So, of course he did well here. But... wait... it is an "open primary" which means you don't have to be a Republican to vote it the Republican primary here. So it is estimated that nearly 50% of voters weren't Republican. And he got a distant second? Did you know there is a webcrawler that finds new webpages on the internet that mention Ron Paul and post automated pro-Paul propaganda if there is a comments section? I guess that strategy didn't win the votes people expected.
Third Place: Huntsman. His "I'm the only non-crazy person running" theme is doing well with the voters. I actually like this guy... except that he's so anti-choice that he makes... hmm... damn, I need a good analogy here. I bet Archer would have the perfect thing to say. I actually think this guy is the only person that would have a chance at beating Obama.
Fourth Place: Newt Gingrich. Sadly the SuperPACs he is running against him used what could only be described as "political hate speech" in a flood of TV adverts and that really hurt him. "Political Hate Speech" is a recent thing. It didn't exist 20-30 years ago. It was invented in the 1990s by a guy who not just invented it, but he wrote about it and gave private Republican-only trainings on how to do it. He said "every time there is a camera in front of you call your opponent a traitor and un-American". Fellow Republicans that refused his advice were scolded and called "old fashioned" and were pushed from the party. Sadly that guy was basically kicked out of the party in a financial scandal combined with an adultery scandal. What ever happened to that guy? Oh wait, it was Newt Gingrich! Gosh, blow-back is a bitch!
Fifth Place: Santorum. If you hate everyone, you'll love Santorum. Especially if you hate gays... well, not all gays, just the ones that are going to destroy the world because they want Marriage Equality.
Sixth Place: Perry. Remember when he joined the race and conservatives said he's a clone of George Bush, Jr. and would go all the way? With 1% of the vote, why is he even staying in the race?
There ya have it.
Oh wait...
You may have noticed that I mentioned that Mitt Romney abused his dog. Was that unfair? He did strap his dog to the top of his car and drive from Mass to Canada at 60-70 miles per hour "as punishment for what the dog had done". That has about as much to do with whether or not he'd be a good president as the fact that Obama's middle name is "Hussein". So, we should only mention this dog thing as often as Republicans mentioned that Obama's middle name is Hussein... right? Oh wait, they gave Obama's full name every... fucking... time... they... could while on the campaign trail.
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10:37 am
[Link] |
71 reasons why LGBT and LGBT-friendly people should campaign for Obama
In 2008 someone from Chicago told me, "Obama lucked out and never happened to be elected in a year that a major gay rights vote was happening. He won't do anything for gays if he's elected to be president. Never has. Never will."
Well, my friend was wrong 71 different ways:
In its first 35 months, the Obama Administration has...
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10:31 am
[Link] |
Mit Romney would have done none of these things, and will reverse most of them when elected.
He appointed a magnificent Secretary of State, killed Osama Bin Laden, decimated the top ranks of Al-Qaeda, ended the war in Iraq, brought all those troops home as he said he would, set a timetable to end the war in Afghanistan, helped to inspire the Arab Spring, led the world in toppling Qaddafi – rather more cost-effectively than his predecessor toppled Saddam – restored America's standing among the community of nations, signed the new START Treaty, was pictured on the cover of New York Magazine as “The First Jewish President” yet improved our standing with Muslims.
He sextupled the number of stem cell lines available to researchers whose work may one day save your child’s life, appointed the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer, averted depression, saved the auto industry, cut taxes for small businesses, cut taxes for the middle class, signed Dodd-Frank, signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, lifted the Global Gag Rule on family planning, removed the co-pay for contraception, appointed two progressive women to the Supreme Court, extended health insurance to tens of millions of Americans an estimated 45,000 of whom were dying each year for lack of it, paid for that additional coverage with a surtax on high-income individuals, doubled the CAFE standard, kick-started alternative energy technology, promulgated the first mercury/arsenic air pollution regulations; launched an educational ‘race to the top,’ ended the college-loan bank boondoggle, extended college affordability, launched the serve.gov national database of volunteer opportunities, launched recovery.gov to disclose Recovery Act outlays and accept public reports of fraud or waste, advanced LGBT equality 71 different ways, has us poised to cut the military budget, ramped up regulation of credit cards, ramped up FDA authority over tobacco, launched the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, opened the White House visitor log to public scrutiny, refused all federal lobbyist and PAC money . . . all this, and more, in the face of the most truculent opposition in living memory that kept us from accomplishing even more with less compromise.
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09:23 am
[Link] | "According to Rick, what we really need in the White House is someone delusional who thinks that an ancient caveman text gives him the right to discriminate against patriotic American soldiers and use government resources to indoctrinate children into his caveman cult. Or something. Maybe I’m not smart enough to understand but that’s what it sounds like to me, anyhow."
Best quote EVAR!
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