Magnifisyncopathological

[Updates below.]

Generally, I drive at the rate of speed I feel most comfortable with. Generally, that means I do 10-15 miles per hour over highway speed limits; in-town it's more like 7-10 over. I prefer the efficiency of driving faster, as well as the pleasant sensations from moving so quickly.

It's been over 10 months since I've been cited for a moving or traffic violation. Given the way statistics work, I know getting pulled over would happen sooner or later. And so it happened tonight on the way home.

I had dropped off a rental from I Love Video's 4631 Airport location after visiting with some friends. I took 51st Street to IH35 and proceeded to cruise northbound with some of Tim's MP3s playing. I'm usually pretty good at looking for cops along my driving routes and remembering common speed traps and radar ambushes, but I completely missed the policeman who busted me just as I left 35 on the Braker exit offramp. I didn't see him until his headlights invaded my car's "personal bubble."

Shit. He's got me.

He flipped his lights on and I pulled over in front of the U-Haul building and waited. Officer Eastlick politely asked for my license and registration, which I volunteered. I also handed him my concealed handgun license and told him I wasn't carrying. He said he clocked me doing 85 and reminded me that section of the highway is speed-limited to 60. A clean bust.

So he walked back to his patrol car and I waited.

I could go into a libertarian-fueled rant (I had spent 2+ hours shortly before at Threadgill's in the first meeting of the Austin Austrian Economics Society) about how state-enforced speed limits are bogus because my actions harmed no one and any harm I might have caused is my responsibility to pay back, but I don't feel like it. I'm just angry at the complications that have been added to my life in the short term, which are also my responsibility, of course.

After filling out the paperwork and asking me for additional information (why do I need to give out my Social Security number?), Officer Eastlick told me he was writing the citation up as doing 70 in a 60 ("allowing you to take defensive driving if you want") and gave me the form to sign. As I scribbled my name, he explained my requirement to appear in court on or before 10/14.

I don't know why Officer Eastlick choose to make his allegation of my speed to be 70 rather than 85, which I clearly was doing. Perhaps it was my CHL, or my manners, or my quick and in-order production of the documents he requested. Maybe he has a thing for TDIs. I'm glad he choose to reduce the burden I'd have to endure. I don't at all like the idea of me being grateful to someone and a system that aribitrarily decides to go easy on me rather than come down full force.

Here's the possible fines and punishments I might face:

Austin City Council PATRIOT Act Resolution

The Austin City Council approved a resolution at its Sept. 25, 2003, meeting concerning the USA PATRIOT Act that was passed by Congress in October 2001 following the 9/11 terrorist attack.

According to the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) its goal is "to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes."

The Council resolution states its concerns about the act.

WHEREAS, the City of Austin is proud of its long and distinguished tradition of protecting the civil rights and liberties of its residents and visitors;

WHEREAS, the preservation of civil rights and liberties is essential to the well being of a democratic society;

WHEREAS, federal, state and local governments should protect the public from terrorist attacks such as those which occurred on September 11, 2001 and should do so in a rational and deliberative fashion, to ensure that security measures shall enhance public safety without impairing or modifying constitutional rights or infringing on civil liberties;

WHEREAS, government security measures which undermine fundamental rights do intrinsic damage to American traditions, institutions and values that residents of Austin hold dear;

WHEREAS, there is no inherent or insurmountable conflict between national security and the preservation of liberty and that Americans can be both safe and free;

WHEREAS, federal policies adopted since September 11, 2001, including provisions in Public Law 107-56, known as the USA PATRIOT Act, and related executive orders, regulations and actions threaten fundamental rights and liberties by:

• A. limiting the authority of federal courts to curb law enforcement abuse of electronic surveillance in anti-terrorism and ordinary criminal investigations;
  
• B. expanding the authority of federal agents to conduct so-called "sneak and peek" or "black bag" searches, in which the subject of the search warrant has not been notified that his or her property has been searched;
  
• C. granting federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies broad access to personal, medical, financial, library and educational records with little, if any, judicial oversight;
  
• D. authorizing the indefinite incarceration of non-citizens based on mere suspicion and the indefinite incarceration of citizens designated by the president as "enemy combatants" without access to counsel or meaningful recourse to the federal courts;
  
• E. chilling constitutionally protected speech through overly broad definitions of "terrorism"; F. permitting the federal bureau of investigation to conduct surveillance of religious services, internet chat rooms, political demonstrations and public meetings of any kind without evidence that a crime has been or may be committed;
  
• G. granting potential unchecked powers to the Attorney General and the U.S. Secretary of State to designate legal domestic groups as "terrorist organizations" by broadly defining "domestic terrorism" to include activities that "appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population," thus possibly categorizing acts of civil disobedience as domestic terrorism;
  
• H. granting law enforcement expanded authority to obtain library records, and prohibiting librarians from informing patrons of monitoring or information requests; and I. authorizing eavesdropping on confidential communications between lawyers and their clients in federal custody; and

WHEREAS, new legislation has been drafted by the Federal Administration entitled the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003 (DSEA, also known as Patriot Act II) which contains a multitude of new and sweeping law enforcement and intelligence gathering powers, many of which are not related to terrorism, that would severely dilute, if not undermine, many basic constitutional rights, as well as disturb our unique system of checks and balances by

• A. radically expanding law enforcement and intelligence gathering authorities;
  
• B. reducing or eliminating judicial oversight over surveillance;
  
• C. authorizing secret arrests;
  
• D. creating a DNA database based on unchecked executive 'suspicion;'
  
• E. creating new death penalties; and
  
• F. expatriating and removing citizenship from Americans who belong to or support disfavored political groups;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF AUSTIN, TEXAS that the City of Austin has been, and remains absolutely committed to the protection of civil rights and civil liberties for all of its residents and affirms its commitment to embody democracy and to embrace, defend and uphold the inalienable rights and fundamental liberties granted to citizens under the United States and Texas Constitutions;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that local law enforcement continue to preserve and uphold residents’ and visitors’ freedom...and protection from unreasonable searches and seizures;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council calls on our United States Representatives and Senators to monitor the implementation of the Act and related Executive Orders and actively work for the repeal of the Act or those sections of the Act including Executive Orders that violate fundamental rights and liberties as stated in the United States Constitution and its Amendments, and to oppose passage of Patriot Act II;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Austin Police Department shall continue their policy of not conducting surveillance of individuals or groups of individuals based on their participation in activities protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, such as political advocacy or the practice of a religion without reasonable and particularized suspicion of criminal conduct unrelated to the activity protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City Manager shall report to the City Council any request by authorities that, if granted, would cause City departments or agencies to exercise powers or cooperate in the exercise of powers in apparent violation of a city ordinance or the laws or constitution of this state or the United States;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City Manager direct the Director of the Library Department to post in a prominent place within the library a notice as follows:

• "WARNING: Under Section 215 of the federal USA Patriot Act (Public Law 107-56), records of books and other materials you borrow from this library may be obtained by federal agents. This law also prohibits librarians from informing you if records about you have been obtained by federal agents. Questions about this policy should be directed to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Department of Justice, Washington, DC 20530;

This is an ugly bit of law and another reason why I won't borrow from public libraries.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that upon passage, the City Clerk shall deliver this resolution to all appropriate federal, state and law enforcement agencies and to the Austin Federal legislative delegation.

"Here you go."

"What is this?"

"The City of Austin polite message telling the federal government to back the hell off."

Posted by drizzten at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I don't often read the paper version of the Austin-American Statesman, but I was bored on Sunday over at a friend's house and someone delivered the paper to his door even though my friend doesn't have a subscription. So I browsed through it and discovered an article about a contentious form of illegal advertising.

Debate about posting signs heats up as Austin ordinance is reconsidered

A revised sign ordinance wending its way through Austin's bureaucracy will make the law less confusing, officials say. But neighborhood activists argue that it doesn't do nearly enough to rid the city of so-called bandit signs cluttering public spaces.

As the new ordinance heads toward an October date with the City Council, emotions on both sides of the sign debate are roiling, heating up online message boards with tales of vigilante sign hunters and threats against residents and business owners.

Anyway...

"It's like telemarketing or spam on your computer," said Bill Meredith, who lives in the Bull Creek area and has long been active on the sign issue. "It's one more type of intrusive, in-your-face advertising."

Frank North, who has battled anti-sign residents online, says the signs have been a boon to his home buying and selling business.

"When I use the signs, the response I get is better than any print ads or radio ads," he said.

North also said business ads are being unfairly targeted.

"I have a problem with selective enforcement," he said. "They don't enforce the lost dogs and garage sales; they mainly go after business people. . . . It opens the city up to a lawsuit."

Austin's current law, on the books for more than a decade, bans the posting of unauthorized signs along roads, at intersections or on utility poles. That means signs advertising businesses such as windshield repair or cash for homes are illegal, as are signs advertising garage sales, lost dogs and concerts. Critics say the city's enforcement of the law hasn't kept up with the proliferation of signs.

§ 25-10-1 APPLICABILITY.

• (A) Except as provided in Subsection (B), this chapter applies to a sign that is:
  
  • (1) located in the planning jurisdiction;
    
  • (2) visible from the public right of way; and
    
  • (3) used for advertising.
  
  
• (B) This chapter does not apply to the official flag of a nation or of a state, unless the flag is installed, maintained, or used in a manner that would make the flag a hazardous sign if it were a commercial flag.

§ 25-10-2 COMPLIANCE REQUIRED.

• (A) A person may not install, move, structurally alter, structurally repair, maintain, or use a sign except in accordance with the provisions of this chapter and other applicable Code provisions.
  
• (B) The primary beneficiary of a sign installed, moved, structurally altered, structurally repaired, maintained, or used in violation of this Code is presumed to have authorized the installation, movement, structural alteration, structural repair, maintenance, or use of the sign in violation of this Code.
  
• (C) A person who violates Subsection (A) or (B) commits an offense.

§ 25-10-3 DEFINITIONS.

• In this chapter:
  
  • (1) ADVERTISING SEARCHLIGHT means a searchlight used to direct beams of light upward for advertising purposes.
    
  • (2) COMMERCIAL FLAG means a piece of fabric or other flexible material displayed for commercial purposes, but excluding the official flag of a nation or of a state.
    
  • (3) FREESTANDING SIGN means a sign not attached to a building, but permanently supported by a structure extending from the ground and permanently attached to the ground.
    
  • (4) MAINTENANCE means the cleaning, painting, repairing, or replacing of defective parts of a sign in a manner that does not alter the basic copy, design, or structure of the sign, but does not include changing the design of the sign's support construction, changing the type of component materials, or increasing the illumination.
    
  • (5) MULTI-TENANT CENTER SIGN means a sign advertising two or more uses with common facilities.
    
  • (6) NONCONFORMING SIGN means a sign that was lawfully installed at its current location but does not comply with the requirements of this chapter.
    
  • (7) OFF-PREMISE SIGN means a sign advertising a business, person, activity, goods, products, or services not located on the site where the sign is installed, or that directs persons to any location not on that site.
    
  • (8) PROJECTING SIGN means a wall sign that extends over public right-of-way for a distance of more than 18 perpendicular inches from the building facade.
    
  • (9) ROOF SIGN means a sign installed over or on the roof of a building.
    
  • (10) SIDEWALK SIGN means a sign located on a sidewalk, either within public right-of-way or on private property within a unified development, advertising the business abutting the sidewalk where the sign is located.
    
  • (11) STREET BANNER means a fabric sign hung over a street maintained by the City.
    
  • (12) WALL SIGN means a sign attached to the exterior of a building or a freestanding structure with a roof but not walls.

§ 25-10-103 SIGNS PROHIBITED IN PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY.

• (A) A person may not cause or authorize a sign to be installed, used, or maintained on a structure located on or over a public property or public right-of-way, except as authorized by this chapter.
  
• (B) The primary beneficiary of any sign installed in violation of this section is presumed to have authorized or caused the installation, use, or maintenance of the sign in violation of this section and commits an offense.
  
• (C) The City Manager may remove a sign or other advertising device installed, used, or maintained on or over any public property or public right-of-way in violation of this chapter. Notice is not required to be given to the owner or beneficiary of a sign removed under this section, either before the removal or before the disposition or destruction of the sign.
  
• (D) This section does not prohibit the installation, use, or maintenance in the public right-of-way of:
  
  • (1) a sidewalk sign;
    
  • (2) a projecting sign in the downtown sign district;
    
  • (3) a street banner; or
    
  • (4) a wall sign that is mounted flat against the building and extends not more than 18 inches from the facade of a building and into public right-of-way.

For Shannon Sedwick, co-owner of Esther's Follies, the signs are litter and should be treated as such in the ordinance.

"We have a beautiful town," she said. "To see these things popping up everywhere, it's like slapping people in the face."

Copyright 2001-2003 Cox Texas Newspapers, L.P. All rights reserved.

For example, compare and contrast the usefullness of these two sentences, each one trying to describe a balloon's lazy ascent upwards after being released:

1. The balloon rose like a wisp of cigarette smoke in the air.
2. The balloon rose like a F-14 Tomcat on takeoff.

See my point? Number one makes a lot more sense than number two. A sign planted in the empty dirt or grass around a telephone pole is NOTHING AT ALL like a slap in the face. It's merely a statement. Perhaps a repetitive, annoying, or useless-to-you statement, but a statement nontheless. Advertising that would be like slapping people in the face would be, for example, door-to-door salesmen that trash your porch if you slam the door in their face. A physical violation of your property.

Speaking extemporaneously is understandable, but come on people, let's use our minds a little more when trying to argue your side of an issue.

Posted by drizzten at 10:40 PM | Permalink

The event went very well. The location was perfect, the movie was great, and the people were awesome.

Having the world premier of the remade Texas Chainsaw Massacre at the Travis County School for the Criminally Insane was brilliant. The complex is littered with old abandoned buildings, standard-issue government school floorplans that anyone would recognize. Since my friend and I got there two hours before the movie was slated to show, we (and many others) wandered around among the place. Nearly every building was unlocked and free to explore, which we did at great length. The atmosphere couldn't have been better: poking around at dusk in these creepy rooms, partially drunk, waiting eagerly for a new horror movie, and all in close proximity to a county correctional facility just down the hill.

The movie itself was really good. I haven't seen the original movie, but the remake stands alone as worthy. R. Lee Ermey played a memorable role as a deranged sheriff. The central group of teens/young adults consisted of new faces to me, though I had heard of Jessica Biel before. These fresh faces and their acting contributed to the great first third of the movie where things are going fine, things start getting bad, and things go straight to shit. The sets all looked awesome and the evil characters were truely vile. Heather Kafka, who played one of the sick neighbors, was in the crowd and was twice as excited as the rest of us to be there. Overall, I think the audience loved the movie.

The Alamo Drafthouse outdid themselves here. They offered a theatrical TCM poster for those who stayed behind to finish a screening of The Frighteners, another movie I hadn't seen before and thouroughly enjoyed. Parking took a bit of time and it was a 6 minute walk from the festivities, but it wasn't terrible. The food was a tad expensive ($5 for a hamburger?) though the beer wasn't as bad ($3 Shiners and Lone Stars). They had a nice selection of various movie shirts on sale. I picked up a Strong Cinema tee with the infamous Andre the Giant face, as well as a heavy paper poster of Savini Fest 2000. I didn't see a cop in sight and still remain surprised the let us roam around the buildings with such impunity.

Even with New Line Cinema's strict no pirating policy, the vibe was high and enthusiastic. Tim League came out right before the showing and told us very clearly that New Line was allowing this to happen because they would do whatever they could to enforce a no camera policy. That mean that during TCM, no cameras or video cameras would be allowed to run. Mr. League said New Line had six guys with infrared vision gear watching the crowd to keep an eye on things. This also meant no smoking for some reason...as though it's hard to distinguish the gestures of a person who is trying to film a movie and a person who's smoking a cigarette. Weird.

The interview session at the end of the movie was fun. Unfortunately, they didn't have time for photo-ops or signatures, but the Q&A with Ermey and the producers was entertaining to say the least. Mr. Ermey is a smart and funny man, more than willing to belt out classic Full Metal Jacket lines and berate the crowd. Most of the questions went to him. He talked about his past, his movie career, his life, and what he thought of the movies he's worked in. He's a hell of a cusser.

I'd rate the event 9 out of 10. More than worth the ticket price!

Posted by drizzten at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

One of the reasons Austin kicks ass is because we have the Alamo Drafthouse. It gets the Spike & Mike Sick and Twisted Animation Festival, a large part of the South-by-Southwest Film Festival, and super-special underground film events. Like the world premier of the remade Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Getting to check out a movie premier (and long-lived local Round Rock/Georgetown-based legend) is just the beginning. Guess who's going to be there, in person? Several of the stars and the director. But one of them in particular is worth mentioning. I'll give you a few hints:

I'll bet you're the kind of guy that would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the goddam common courtesy to give him a reach-around! I'll be watching you!

Holy dog shit! Texas? Only steers and queers come from Texas, Private Cowboy. And you don't look much like a steer to me so that kinda narrows it down. Do you suck dicks?

God has a hard on for Marines, because we kill everything we see. He plays His games, we play ours. To show our appreciation for so much power, we keep heaven packed with fresh souls. God was here before the marine corps, so you can give your heart to Jesus, but your ass belongs to the corps!

I bought a ticket for myself and for my friend as soon as I heard about this.

Tim League, one of the Head Honchos behind the Drafthouse, sent this e-mail to those of us lucky enough to get a spot:

Welcome to the Premiere of the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre!

Presented by Ain't It Cool News, the Austin Chronicle, New Line CInema and the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, proceeds benefit the Center for Young Cinema and the Austin Film Society.

Below is all the information that you will need for the evenings excitement.

1. TICKETS: Since you are getting this email, it means that you have purchased your tickets already. Some of you may have friends who bought tickets but did not get the email. Ask them to check their junk mail box or trash. Some people have their email settings adjusted to treat us like spam. You do not need to pick up tickets at the theater. You don't need to do anything until the day of the show when you will arrive at the site with an ID and your purchase receipt/email confirmation letter.

2. LOCATION: The screening will be held at the Travis State School for the Criminally Insane. Parts of the film you are about to see were filmed here. To get there, take Martin Luthor King Blvd East from I35. Not too much further, start looking on the right hand side of the road. You will pass a wastewater treatment facility that is causing a lot of roadwork; You will see a long driveway leading to an ominous looking Correctional Facility. That's right, we're right next door to the friendly neighborhood penitentiary! If you want to check the local fugitive watch, click: http://people.txucom.net/tdcj-iad/. Pass this turn to the Jailhouse and slow down. You will see a crumbling brick entry way with a sign reading "Travis State School". Turn in here.

Mapquest map:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?savedMap=1064522547

Check in is at the guard house, and the guard will point you towards parking.

3 TIME: Check in begins at 5:30. When you arrive, you will be able to stake out your territory then take a tour of the asylum. Be back to the screening site at 8:30. On screen action will begin as the sky darkens.

4. DINNER: A Concessions area will be set up selling burgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, tofu dogs, popcorn, and some home spun Chainsaw Massacre fare: chili and real Smitty's market smoked sausages, direct from Lockhart! Water, Sodas and Beer will also be available.

5. WHAT TO BRING: The screening is outdoors on a grassy lawn. Bring blankets, pillows, lawnchairs, orwhatever you want to make yourself comfortable. Bring bug spray and something warm to wear in case it turns chilly. The weather report looks very good, so we don't expect any wet weather to spoil the event.

6. WHAT NOT TO BRING: Do not bring video cameras, computers, or anything else that can be used to create pirate video. The security from New Line will be confiscating any camera equipment they see, and you will be asked to leave the event. SO DON'T BRING IT! Our continued ability to bring these fun events to Austin depends upon your cooperation to keep the screenings just for us, not to share over the internet.

Do not bring alcoholic beverages. We are using our own liquor license to serve beer and are therefore legally held responsible for public safety.

Rain contingency - there are no refunds due to rain. If there is bad weather, we will move the screening up to Lake Creek in two shifts. In the event of rain, we will post details on the rain contingency.

UPDATE(9/27/2003 1:05pm)
Ok, here's some weird info. The Mapquest link doesn't work, I can't find an entry for "Travis State School for the Criminally Insane" in the phone book, and no one knew what I was talking about when I called the Travis County prison system. I guess we'll have to rely on the directions above.

The weather looks to be almost perfect for tonight! I can't wait.

Posted by drizzten at 12:31 AM | Permalink

Palestinian Scholar Edward W. Said Dies

Edward W. Said, a Columbia University professor and leading spokesman in the United States for the Palestinian cause, has died. He was 67.

Said had suffered from leukemia for years and died at a New York hospital late Wednesday, said Shelley Wanger, his editor at Knopf publishers.

Said was born in 1935 in Jerusalem, then part of British-ruled Palestine, but he spent most of his adult life in the United States.

He was a prominent member of the Palestinian parliament-in-exile for 14 years, until stepping down in 1991. He also wrote passionately about the Palestinian cause, as well as on a variety of other subjects, from English literature, his academic specialty, to music and culture.

Dreams and delusions

In no uncertain terms Delay declared himself opposed to the Bush administration's support for the roadmap, especially the provision in it for a Palestinian state. "It would be a terrorist state," he said emphatically, using the word "terrorist" -- as has become habitual in official American discourse -- without regard for circumstance, definition or concrete characteristics.

Problems of neoliberalism

Taxes were therefore quite high [in post-war Britain and the United States in the 1940s and 1950s] for the wealthy, although the middle and working classes also had to pay for the benefits that accrued to them (mainly education, health and social security). Many of these benefits were the result of an aggressive and well-organised labour union system, but there was also a prevailing idea that the large costs of health and education, for example, which the individual citizen could not afford to pay alone, should be subsidised by the corporate body of the welfare state. By the beginning of the '90s all this was not only under attack but had started to disappear.

[...]

There is hardly anyone left to challenge the idea that schools, for instance, should be run as profit-making enterprises, and that hospitals should offer service only to those who can pay prices set by pharmaceutical companies and hospital accountants. The disappearance of the welfare state means that no public agency exists to safeguard personal well-being for the weak, the disadvantaged, impoverished families, children, the handicapped, and the aged. New liberalism speaks about opportunities as "free" and "equal" whereas if for some reason you are not capable of staying ahead, you will sink.What has disappeared is the sense citizens need to have of entitlement -- the right, guaranteed by the state, to health, education, shelter, and democratic freedoms. If all those become the prey of the globalised market, the future is deeply insecure for the large majority of people, despite the reassuring (but profoundly misleading) rhetoric of care and kindness spun out by the media managers and public relations experts who rule over public discourse.

The treason of the intellectuals

Pariah states like Iraq, North Korea, Sudan, Cuba and Libya (pariahs because the US has labelled them so) bear the brunt of US unilateral anger; one of them, Iraq, is in the process of genocidal dissolution, thanks to US sanctions which go on well past any sensible purpose other than to satisfy the US's feelings of righteous anger. What is all this supposed to accomplish, and what does it say to the world about US power? This is a frightening message bearing no relationship to security, national interest, or well-defined strategic aims. It is all about power for its own sake.

The other America

A small item in the press a few days ago reported that Prince Ibn Al-Walid of Saudi Arabia had donated 10 million dollars to the American University in Cairo to establish a department or centre of American Studies there. It should be recalled that the young billionaire had contributed an unsolicited 10 million dollars to New York City shortly after the 11 September bombings, with an accompanying letter that, aside from describing the handsome sum as a tribute to New York, also suggested that the United States might reconsider its policy towards the Middle East. Obviously he had total and unquestioning American support for Israel in mind, but his politely stated proposition seemed also to cover the general American policy of denigrating, or at least showing disrespect, for Islam.

In a fit of petulant rage, the then Mayor of New York (which also has the largest Jewish population of any city in the world), Rudolph Guiliani, returned the check to Al-Walid, rather unceremoniously and with an extreme and I would say racist contempt that was meant to be insulting as well as gloating. On behalf of a certain image of New York, he personally was upholding the city's demonstrated bravery and its principled resistance to outside interference. And of course pleasing, rather than trying to educate, a purportedly unified Jewish constituency.

Guiliani's churlish behaviour was of a piece with his refusal several years before (in 1995, well after the Oslo signings) to admit Yasser Arafat to the Philharmonic Hall for a concert to which everyone at the UN had been invited. Typical of the cheap theatrics of the below average American big city politician, what New York's mayor did in response to the young Saudi Arabian's gift was completely predictable. Even though the money was intended, and greatly needed, for humanitarian use in a city wounded by a terrible atrocity, the American political system and its main actors put Israel ahead of everything, whether or not Israel's amply endowed and highly mobilised lobbyists would have done the same thing.

A monument to hypocrisy

...Colin Powell's speech, despite its many weaknesses, its plagiarised and manufactured evidence, its confected audio-tapes and its doctored pictures, was correct in one thing. Saddam Hussein's regime has violated numerous human rights and UN resolutions. There can be no arguing with that and no excuses can be allowed. But what is so monumentally hypocritical about the official US position is that literally everything Powell has accused the Ba'athists of has been the stock in trade of every Israeli government since 1948, and at no time more flagrantly than since the occupation of 1967. Torture, illegal detention, assassination, assaults against civilians with missiles, helicopters and jet fighters, annexation of territory, transportation of civilians from one place to another for the purpose of imprisonment, mass killing (as in Qana, Jenin, Sabra and Shatilla to mention only the most obvious), denial of rights to free passage and unimpeded civilian movement, education, medical aid, use of civilians as human shields, humiliation, punishment of families, house demolitions on a mass scale, destruction of agricultural land, expropriation of water, illegal settlement, economic pauperisation, attacks on hospitals, medical workers and ambulances, killing of UN personnel, to name only the most outrageous abuses...

There's more to look through if you wish. The criticism (for example, here, here, and here) of his primary work, Orientalism, is also worth reading.

Posted by drizzten at 01:58 PM | Permalink

From the 33º events list:

Prefuse 73
2 nights
@ The Mercury, Tue & Wed, Oct 14th & 15th ($13 cash / $14 charge)

Bouncing Souls
w/ Tsunami Bomb / Strike Anywhere / Vision
@ Emo's Fri, Oct 17th ($10 cash / $11 charge)

Hot Water Music
w/ A Static Lullaby / Lawrence Arms / These Arms Are Snakes
@ Emo's Sat, Nov 15th ($10 cash / $11 charge)

Aesop Rock
w/ Mr Lif, C-Ray Walz / DJ Fakts One
@ Emo's Sun, Nov 23rd ($15 cash / $16 charge)

Atmosphere
w/ Mr Dibbs / Blueprint / Odd Jobs
@ Emo's Fri, Nov 28th ($15 cash / $16 charge)

Posted by drizzten at 12:18 PM | Permalink

I have the great privilege to have Tim Steeno as one of my best friends. Known him since the ending days of high school. He has since moved on to Dallas to persue his higher *cough* education, as well as a career as a drum 'n bass DJ. He stopped by last weekend to deliver some excellent news and material: his mix is making waves in the Texas scene...and he has a pro-quality CD for everyone's listening pleasure.

As teamed up with Soccer Mom to create the DJ duo Robot Dick, their self-titled album Robot Dick clocks just over 62 minutes and has 21 tracks. An average of roughly three minutes, but most tracks were mixed in and out in under 2 minutes. For those uninformed of what that represents, it means these two fools are mixing and matching hard and quick. Do not assume all that's happening are mere fade-ins and fade-outs connecting the tracks. They've layered, mixed, and flipped their way into a very smooth sound using mostly normal vinyl but also experimenting with Final Scratch.

The tracklist is as follows:

1. Klute - Psycho Somatic
   
2. Dykast - H-Def
   
3. Crossfire - Firebolt
   
4. Dykast - Amnesia
   
5. Universal Project - Danger Chamber
   
6. Bad Company - Mass Hysteria (Hive Remix)
   
7. JB + Benny Blanco - Demon Eyes
   
8. Cujo - Bitters
   
9. Mosus + Killjoy - I Like It Ruff
   
10. Drumsound + Simon Bassline Smith - Drain Pipe
    
11. DJ Abstract - Now is the Time
    
12. Deep Roots - Critical
    
13. Dragonsword - Silent Fury (Polar Remix)
    
14. Black Sun Empire - Gun Cellar
    
15. Arqer - Alien Miscarriage VIP
    
16. Concord Dawn - Raining Blood
    
17. Klute - Evo Sniffer
    
18. Echo - Out of Time
    
19. Eye D - Unicorn MF (Black Sun Empire Remix)
    
20. Kryptic Minds + Leon Switch - Blueprint
    
21. DJ Damage - Screaming Soul

Robot Dick is a very welcome addition to my music collection because I don't have a good apocalyptic dnb CD to play when I need insane driving music. Probably the best and craziest track is "Unicorn MF (Black Sun Empire Remix)." Every time I hear it, I picture brutal and determined anime fighters whipping about and utterly trashing the area around them. Rawk.

This track, "Danger Chamber," and "Mass Hysteria" are songs that look you in the eye and demand you flip the bird to speed limits. I pretty much guarantee your parents won't like them and your neighbors will wonder what chasm of Hell opened next door.

Cujo is an alias for a man more popularly known as Amon Tobin, of whom I am a huge fan. I have Cujo's sole major US release and it doesn't sound anything like track 8. Of course, Amon Tobin/Cujo have deep breakbeat/drum 'n bass roots in all of his music and there are some releases of his that I don't have, so it's possible this side of the artist is one I haven't been exposed to yet.

Slayer fans should really enjoy track 16. *evil grin*

The disc ends as perfectly as it begins. DJ Damage's track has "epic ender" written all over it and "Psycho Somatic" opens things promptly and directly.

Everything has happened so quickly that Robot Dick hasn't had a chance to put up a good website. They want people to go to www.flamingoking.com, but saying it isn't ready for mass consumption would be putting it very politely. These are some busy dudes (once the CD was put into DJ circulation, things exploded for them) who have to adjust their lives around this new gig. For info and booking, e-mail Soccer Mom at paulie@epro-animation.com.

Best of luck to the both of you. *thumbs up*

UPDATE(11/26/2003 12:17pm)
Their Big Gig is tomorrow and I'm going to see it. Opening for Dillinja is no bullshit.

Posted by drizzten at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I had my first 200 hit day this week. Go me! As before, the overwhelming majority of the hits are from search engines. However, the cumulative affect of being on a few blogrolls (thanks Light of Reason, Samizdata, Catallarchy, Erik, Grimthing, and rlbtzero!) is adding up. Much obliged.

I wish I could post more. I can't spend time at work doing this nor can I spend any decent time looking for news and postable subjects since TASB scans and filters all Net activity. Not to mention my boss shares a wall with me and can sneak around the corner like a spry old ninja devil woman. She's quicker and quieter than I am, that's for sure.

On the home front, things aren't much betta. I've resolved to do some form of exercise every day of the week with the exceptions of Friday through Sunday. By the time I finish with that and eat dinner, it's maybe 8pm. I then have moderator duties at Animeboards, a certain pathological need to check my site's stats (as if it weren't obvious by now...) and inbound links, respond to the ever-increasing number of comments, and do all the web browsing I would have otherwise done at work. Weekends are, of course, for being lazy and drunk and generally unproductive. I'm slowly getting more active in local politics.

Then there's that stupid requirement that I sleep at least 5.5 hours each night. Can you believe some of the rules we humans have to put up with...geez...

Still, it's lots of fun and there's never a dearth of things to rant about, pick apart, or promote. Here's to 50,000 hits by Christmas!

UPDATE(9/26/2003 12:45am)
How could I forget the world's only mentionable Alien Pig Fetus? My apologies, kind Sir. My place on your blogroll helps me sleep well at night. :)

Posted by drizzten at 09:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Continuing from my previous post on Texas Congressional redistricting...Senate tentatively approves redistricting map

Republicans got what they wanted Tuesday night -- passing congressional redistricting.

After three failed attempts, a congressional redistricting map was tentatively approved Tuesday by the Texas Senate.

The bill was approved 18-to-13 -- largely along party lines -- and is expected to get final approval on Wednesday.

After a 45-day boycott by Senate Democrats, the Senate spent nine hours debating amendments and the merits of the map authored by Sen. Todd Staples of Palestine.

An easy way to compare the differences is to load both in seperate windows, zoom them to the same level, maximize each window, and ALT+TAB back and forth between them. Doing this reveals a few things to me.

1. El Paso remains the same.
2. Travis County is largely the same with IH35 the dividing line between district 21 and district 10. However, the House map pulls this line to the west and the line looses touch with IH35 entirely. The Senate map roughly follows this method until it gets near the southern part of the county. It then cuts sharply east and crosses the highway.
3. Both Tarrant County and Dallas County get serious makeovers in each map.
4. Harris County gets just as jumbled-up as before in either map.
5. Bexar County remains unchanged.
6. District 23 (essentially the entire southwest border with Mexico) remains almost entirely unchanged.
7. The mid- and northwest get far differing treatment in each map, currently the big hurdle among Republican solidarity.

UPDATE(10/12/2003 9:34pm)
Big News: a plan has been finalized and passed by both the House and the Senate.

Posted by drizzten at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

New Capital Metro budget has raises, reduced hours

Capital Metro's board, despite a last-minute dose of bad sales tax news, passed a growing 2003-04 budget on Monday that planners with the transit agency say will increase riders even as it cuts the hours buses are on the street.

The $114.7 million budget, passed unanimously, would be about 8.3 percent above what the agency expects to spend this fiscal year. Not coincidentally, that is exactly the percentage that the budget projects for growth in salary and benefits.

The principal driver of the increase, as it is now for most large organizations, is bulging health care costs. Capital Metro expects to spend 15 percent more on health care benefits in the coming fiscal year, which will begin Oct. 1. In addition, the agency's unionized employees -- bus drivers and mechanics, primarily -- will get a 4 percent across-the-board salary raise under a pre-existing contract. Others will get 2 1/2 percent.

Customers, at first glance, would seem to be getting less service for their money. Or, more specifically, their sales tax. Capital Metro's operations are mostly supported by a 1 percent sales tax levied in the agency's service area, which encompasses Austin, northwest Travis County and other cities and towns in Williamson and Travis counties.

The budget indicates that the agency's primary bus service will run 3 percent fewer hours next year. Hours would also be down slightly for the shuttle buses Capital Metro provides under a contract with the University of Texas.

But the agency foresees a 1.6 percent increase in ridership over projections for this year, to a total of 35 million passengers, including a slight increase for the primary service.

Copyright 2001-2003 Cox Texas Newspapers, L.P. All rights reserved.

So, if I want to buy goods from companies that wish to operate with the blessing of the City of Austin, why must I pay a tax for a service I don't and won't use? Furthermore, why must others pay a tax for a service they may use...but when that tax is used to subsidize the rates of the ridership?

Wouldn't it just be easier, simpler, and exponentially more fair to just charge each rider what it costs to transport him or her? A market-based revenue plan would make more sense than taxing everyone who buys something, regardless of their intentions on using the system they are paying for.

Yes, such a revenue plan would price a portion of the public out of the system. I don't see that as a bad thing. People are not born with a right to inexpensive transportation and certainly not born with a right to my money to pay for that transportation. Getting to and from the places in your daily schedule is your responsibility to work out.

Posted by drizzten at 10:33 PM | Permalink

Via Shonk I discovered explodingdog.

hi my name is sam,
i draw pictures, from your titles.

A quick scan revealed my favorites to be hey you, off my cloud, i computered it, oh man, i hate that mountain, and i'll be gone for three days.

Good stuff.

Posted by drizzten at 12:15 AM | Permalink

Over the last few weeks I've seen The Medallion, Freddy vs. Jason, Welcome to Collinwood and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. It's way more than my usual amount and it isn't surprising that none of the movies I wanted to see earlier in the year are in the above list. Going to a theater has always been more of a sprur-of-the-moment thing with me. Having enough money to pay for the tickets does help, too.

The Medallion was probably the most sub-par Jackie Chan movie I've seen in terms of cohesive plot. But, why would anyone want to go see a Jackie Chan flick for the plot? The action was good enough to keep me interested, but overall I was disappointed. There were some fairly funny moments but I don't want to see a movie for just a few moments of good entertainment. The effects keep getting better, but there's a point where effects can be misused to cover over shoddy filmaking. B-, for coming into the film with too-high expectations. Maybe a B+ if I had never heard of it and rented it on a whim.

My friends and I went to see Freddy vs. Jason on the assumption it was going to be a schlock-fest drowning in cheese and cliché. We were mostly right, but then again, the entertainment is in the mindlessness of it all. Nudity, gore, swearing, Freddy's one-liners, the unstoppable Jason...everything was there. In contrast to The Medallion, the effects used here were restrained and worked well. Since The Matrix, it's just not good enough to have a fight...you've gotta have people strong enough to knock the bastards across the room. The Jason-Freddy fights were great. I could have done without the IN YOUR EXXXTREME FACE hard thrash rock soundtrack. Someone needs to put a stop to this in movies, people. It's getting out of hand. B, for being predictable to the very end.

Welcome to Collinwood was a movie I had never heard of and I only saw it because Cameron rented it out of the blue before I stopped by his house. It was very good, considering the basic plot is something that has been done almost to death in recent years. I am continually amazed at William H. Macy's ability to play different characters and play them believably. There were enough twists and in-jokes to keep the pace moving fast enough...because there really isn't much there beyond the wacky characters and the situation-to-situation bumbling they get into. Personally, I think George Clooney's small role was one of his best. A strong B+, for a nice attempt at doing something that's very familar to most audiences and for keeping it's nose firmly in the gutter while doing it.

Being solid fans of Desperado and slightly lesser fans of El Mariachi, Cameron and I were eager to see Once Upon a Time in Mexico. I didn't ask him his opinion of it, but I was disappointed. Part of the problem was the sound at the Alamo Drafthouse Village where we saw it. It was too loud, especially during the opening gun battle. But you get used to things like that and the rest of the movie's flaws, most of which are layed out here, slowly surfaced.

The central problem was one of focus. Antonio Banderas's character is brought out of retirement to kill a rogue Mexican general...Johnny Depp is trying to manipulate the country's politics in order to "bring balance" to the system...you've got Rubén Blades's retired FBI agent (probably my favorite character ouside of Banderas in this movie) working up the guts to get in the action once again...Gerardo Vigil as the boring and stiff Central Bad Guy who's trying to overthrow the Mexican government...and then the just-as-forgettable throw-away roles Willem Dafoe and Mickey Rourke got stuck with as the cartel boss and assistent, respectively. I couldn't find the strong thread a good movie has that should have binded the project together...the "message" seemed to be blow everything away as long as you have something to fight for. Not very inspiring, even though I do agree with the general sentiment this assessment explains in the IMDB thread:

Watching "El" come full circle was the perfect way to end his story. At the beginning of the trilogy he was just a mariachi, someone looking for work, but got pulled into the deep, dark underworld of Mexico and had his love interest killed along the way. By the second chapter his dream of continuing as an artist is over because of the loss of his hand, so he uses his hands for destruction rather than creation. By the end of the second chapter he is done with all the killing and is ready to go on with his life with his new and amazing looking companion. By the beginning of the third chapter he is creating again but at the great cost of having lost his newfound reasons for living, his wife and daughter. Even before they were gone he was seeking only one thing, freedom, but can't find it because of the killer he used to be has too many enemies. He finds his chance for freedom in the form of Sands and takes it. But he goes one step further and actually protects El Presidente, thereby cementing his freedom through an unofficial pardon while killing off his remaining enemies.

Posted by drizzten at 11:16 PM | Permalink

Via Tim Blair, I found this post on Right Thoughts. In it is a photo of WTO protestors and riot police facing off.

Well, not exactly. You see, the protestors have a trick in their, erm, bucket.

Sat Sep 13, 5:51 PM ET
Anti-WTO demonstrators throw liquid feces on Mexican riot police guarding the meeting of the World Trade Organization (news - web sites) in Cancun, Mexico on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2003. (AP Photo/Jaime Puebla)

Posted by drizzten at 01:32 AM | Permalink

Says Steven:

Those in the third world who are trying to acquire nukes are not thinking of them as battlefield weapons. They're thinking of them as strategic weapons.

If the record of the last fifteen years has taught the world anything, it's that once the US decides to mass troops on the border of some nation and to invade it, the result is not in doubt. The only safety for the leaders of such a nation lies in preventing us from reaching that point.

But they don't really have very many ways of doing that. About the best means available now is to try to use international institutions such as the UN to tie our hands, which seems to have been the wager Saddam made, and it clearly didn't work. Now that the US has demonstrated that it will "unilaterally" make such attacks even despite condemnation from the majority of the nations of the world (including such steadfast and highly important allies as France), then short of political capitulation to us there seems to be no hope. That's why publicly or secretly most of them want nukes; it changes their situation, and makes them much less vulnerable.

[...]

Trying to take out a petty despot known to have nukes would be a hell of a lot more perilous than taking out such a despot who didn't have nukes, and because of that it would drastically change our risk-reward calculation.

It would take a hell of a lot more to get us to even make the attempt, because their nuclear deterrent against us would be a lot more effective than ours against them.

I fully agree with his assessment. He doesn't offer his opinion about what to do, but mine is that our rational array of options are limited to

1. A vociferous international anti-proliferation effort aimed at diplomatically keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of rogue nations.
   
2. Pre-emptive military strikes against all known high-value WMD targets and enemy leadership capability.

However, Number One can't work unless the diplomatic bodies and individuals charged with political deterrence are unwilling to step up and take a firm and uncompromising stand against these dangerous nations. The UN is functionally equivalent to a school yard monitor with a whistle who has to ask the local police to borrow a baton to quell a rowdy and vicious playground. And that's assuming the "principle," the "school board," and the "parent teachers organization" even allow the monitor to step outside the main building in the first place, usually waiting until a considerable row develops.

Unless the UN goes through some fundamental changes, I don't see it being useful in acting as the primary anti-proliferation agent against nations on the same level as North Korea, Iraq, and Iran. The leadership in countries like those need a different diplomatic approach than the lukewarm photo-op bullshit sessions filled with concerned platitudes that are the norm today. Simply put: there are people worthy of respect in this world and there are those that are not. Being the "leader" of a nation or in it's government does not automatically bestow that respect upon you. Especially when it seems more of your government's effort is spent killing, stealing from, and bullying around it's citizens than your average collectivized state.

Then again, I am talking about the political class here. The kinds of changes in attitude, approach, and language are less likely to occur than I can stomach.

Posted by drizzten at 01:18 AM | Permalink

I have been following the Avigayil Wardein Lemonade Stand License Debacle here and here. My outlook changed from one post to the other (though my fundamental problem remains the same). It looks like my preceptions of the case were grossly distorted by the initial reporting and the little follow-up I did afterwards. The bulk of my sympathy at first went towards Mrs. Shaw and her daughter but after reading an article posted a month after the event, my sympathy shifted more towards the center and to the neighbor.

Now, someone claiming to be KC Shaw (Avigayil's mother) has written a lengthy comment in the second post. I have no way of determining if it is her, but I'll address the comment in the later on tonight within the post, with the assumption those are her words. I don't have time to do it now.

As a side note, this marks the third time a principle person to a story I've written about has stopped by to comment. The first one was with a mother whose twins died at the hands of a driver while he was talking on his cell phone. It didn't go well and wasn't very civil. The second one was with a mother and her daughter who were fighting Texas's standardized testing system. It went better (though the discussion actually happened before the cell phone post's) but though it had a wider variety of participants, it lacked focus until the end.

So now another mother comes on to defend her position (and her daughter). Third time's the charm, I hope. Geez, I hope this doesn't turn out to be a pattern. Moms are important! Pissin' them off has always been bad luck for me. :)

Posted by drizzten at 06:13 PM | Permalink

Updates below.

Previously, I wrote about the new law that governs visual access to automobile license plates in Texas. To put it simply, I was pissed.

When I heard of the law, I wrote an e-mail and sent it to several friends. I also sent it to my father, primarily because he is a deputy sheriff in Comal County and I wanted to get his professional opinion of the law and any "insider info" from the police. Below are the contents of the discussion. His words are italicized and mine are bolded.

His response to my initial e-mail:

Chas!

Anyway, the only folks that will likely be affected by this new law is the Michigan, Ohio, and NY car dealers that have been making ever increasingly large advertisements on their license plate frames that now cover everything except the last two numbers/characters. Obscuring the state's name from your plate for the sake of a used car dealer advertisement does not rank real high with me.

My contention isn't with a law against making it hard or impossible to read a license plate. "Unclean" is certainly ambigious and begged for more clarity. But I'm unhappy with the law's new wording, regardless.

Sec. 502.409. WRONG, FICTITIOUS, ALTERED, OR OBSCURED [UNCLEAN] LICENSE PLATE.

(a) A person commits an offense if the person attaches to or displays on a motor vehicle a number plate or registration insignia that:

• (7) has a coating, covering, or protective material that:
  
• (A) distorts angular visibility or detectability; or
  
• (B) alters or obscures the letters or numbers on the plate, the color of the plate, or another original design feature of the plate.

Chas,

I'll send you the website [address is in CA] that you can buy dark blue, [so dark blue it looks black!] pre cut "reflective" numbers and letters that are a match to your state's font, that you can install on your license plate, so that when you get a snapshot made of your plate [remember your background is already reflective!] the whole thing looks like one big bright reflection to the camera, otherwise, in normal light, it looks like a normal license plate. This is carrying it a bit too far, I suppose.

I see your point about restricting the law from a test of the plate being "clean" to a test of several objective rules. That, in retrospect, is certainly a better thing than before. I also see and understand your point about people deliberately trying to make their plates "stealthy."

I still consider it sloppy law with the language I quoted before. Had the legislation restrained itself to protecting the visibility of the plate number, I wouldn't have a problem. It's the opening for abuse I don't like. In some laws, the opening is small and you'd have to strain yourself to justify it. With this law, the objective standards classify far too many license plate frames as illegal.

Anyway, thanks for the discussion. If you wish, we can talk about it more this weekend, especially if some of your sheriff's buddies will be there.

Chas,

Other uses: this morning in San Antonio, an aggravated kidnapping on the NE side, actor fleeing on IH 35 north, exiting onto Loop 337 and heading west on SH 46 towards 281 in a burgandy Mercury Cougar. We know all of this info because the actor is using his cell phone and we are getting fixes from the various towers he is hitting with his phone. SAPD has no license plate, because it is obscured. We know there are two occupants, one male and one female. However, without a license plate, guess what -- all burgandy or even close to burgandy Merc Cougars in Comal County got stopped this morning. Now there were only about 3 or 4 of them, but all of which would have been unnecessary with a good license plate.

Indeed, I affix most of the blame to the authors of the laws, not the people who've got to enforce them. Everyone's human and we all make mistakes. Ya just kinda want those with the power to really screw other people to be more careful.

If you don't mind, I'm going to post this dialogue on my website. It covers some good information and might help someone searching for a police viewpoint other than that of an interviewed DPS trooper or spokesperson.

Post away!

So, have my opinions changed? Not really. I still consider it a bad law and I had hoped for more of an acknowledgement from my father regarding it's bad design. But he makes a good case for the law's intent. I'm just not happy with the way it was implemented.

UPDATED 2/15/2007 3:45pm
License Plate Frames Banned in Texas

Posted by drizzten at 05:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

A monster awakens?

Part of America's Yellowstone National Park was closed to visitors on July 23 this year and remains closed today due to high ground temperatures and increased thermal activity in the park.

[...]

On August 7, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported that scientists were planning to set up a temporary network of seismographs, Global Positioning System receivers and thermometers to monitor increasing hydrothermal activity in the Norris Geyser Basin and gauge the risk of a hydrothermal explosion.

On August 10, the Denver Post reported that Liz Morgan, a U.S. Geological Survey research geologist had discovered a huge bulge underneath Yellowstone Lake that had risen 100 feet from the lake floor. The bulge is two thousand feet long and has the potential to explode at any time.

[...]

Then, on August 24th, the University of Utah Seismograph Station reported that a magnitude 4.4 earthquake occurred just 9 miles southeast of the southern entrance to Yellowstone National Park. USGS scientists agreed that the earthquake was "uncommon" in that it was a very shallow earthquake, occuring just 0.3 miles below the surface.

Copyright © 2003 Ian Gurney

Unlike Old Faithful, Steamboat is anything but predictable. It's gone as few as four days and as many as 50 years between major eruptions — noisy, powerful spectacles that can send hot water 300 feet or higher and churn out dense steam for hours.

Recently, though, it has been more active — its two eruptions so far this year came just weeks apart — and the emergence of a forceful new thermal feature nearby has scientists like Heasler wondering: What's happening in Norris Geyser Basin, where Steamboat is located?

"That's the million dollar question. It's changing more than anyone has noticed before," Heasler said. "Are we noticing because we're looking? Or because something is abnormal?"

Researchers are trying to find answers.

[...]

What's bubbling beneath the shallow surface of the volatile basin and why has the basin floor been steadily bulging upward over the past few years?

Adding to the intrigue is Norris' location. The basin — filled with hot springs, geysers and steam vents called fumaroles — is outside Yellowstone's caldera, formed by the last volcanic eruption about 640,000 years ago and considered the hotbed for geothermal activity in the park.

[...]

So far, there's no cause for alarm and no apparent looming threat, Lowenstern said. Steamboat's renewed eruptions and the basin rising several centimeters in the past few years could just be normal activity, he said.

The geyser's first major eruption was reported in 1878. After that, it flared up occasionally before lying largely dormant from 1911-61. Observers say the 1960s and the early 1980s were fairly active.

Then, quiet again, until May 2000. That was followed by two eruptions in 2002 and two more again this spring — March 26 and April 27.

Copyright © 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2003 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

Norris Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park has long been recognized as the hottest and most changeable of Yellowstone's famous hydrothermal wonders.

This summer, Norris lived up to its hot, unstable reputation as scientists and visitors alike have seen significant changes in many geysers and increased ground temperatures in the western part of the basin. Porkchop Geyser, which sprang to life from a small hot spring in 1971, erupted in July for the first time since 1989.

Water has drained away from several active geysers, resulting in hissing steam vents and ground temperatures as high as 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Still other geysers have erupted more frequently and regularly, while some thermal features that usually release hot water and steam now send steam jetting into the air.

On July 11, the staff of Yellowstone National Park also noted the formation of a new mud pot - a small cauldron filled with boiling acidic water and mud. Within one week, the mudpot turned into a high - pressure steam vent.

Also, pine trees are dying in three areas in response to the increased thermal activity. Norris is one of the more popular geyser basins in Yellowstone, with as many as 4,000 people visiting the nearby museum each week.

[...]

About a mile of trail and boardwalk in the Back Basin remain closed because of the hazard to visitors and park staff from the high temperatures.

All rights reserved. Copyright West Hawaii Today.

The dark depths of Yellowstone Lake, with recently discovered thermal vents and explosion craters, hold some of the most tantalizing mysteries in Yellowstone National Park.

The most intriguing may be a bulge on the lake floor that stretches seven city blocks and rises as a tall as a 10-story building.

More than likely, steam or hot gas is roiling just beneath the "inflated plain," the informal name that scientists have given to the feature just south-southwest of Storm Point, near Mary Bay.

The question now is whether the bulge is building up to a violent explosion – similar to those that formed Mary Bay, Indian Pond and other nearby craters thousands of years ago – or whether it will simply collapse quietly, perhaps spewing off a little steam.

Lisa Morgan, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist who has been mapping and studying the lake intensively, said scientists hope to have some answers in the coming weeks. For now, no one can say whether the "inflated plain" poses a serious risk.

"I don’t have any evidence today that this thing is moving at all, but we do know it inflated in the past," Morgan said during a presentation this week at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.

[...]

Copyright © 2000-2002 Billings Gazette and Lee Enterprises.

This worrying situation was confirmed on September 8 by Dr. Bruce Cornet, a geologist and paleobotanist with the USGS, who explained: "Steam pressure is apparently building again in Yellowstone, and hydrothermal fluids and steam are working their way up through fractures and vents. If more steam vents appear, that means a continuous pathway for pressure release has been established to the magma chamber. If that happens, the pressure in the magma chamber will continue to drop until it reaches a critical stage when the superheated water within the magma explodes. Unfortunately, as the steam venting subsides, there will be a false sense of security. People will think it was just another cyclical event, and the danger is over. But that will be the farthest from the truth. It will be the quiet before the storm."

Initially this should be of little or no consequence to anyone apart from those planning to visit Yellowstone . . . except for one thing. Lurking beneath Yellowstone National Park is one of the most destructive natural phenomena in the world: a massive supervolcano.

Only a handful exist in the world but when one erupts the explosion will be heard around the globe. The sky will darken, black acid rain will fall, and the Earth will be plunged into the equivalent of a nuclear winter. It could push humanity to the brink of extinction.

[...]

Professor McGuire went on to explain that: "Many supervolcanoes are not typical hill-shaped structures but huge, collapsed craters called "calderas" that are filled with hot magma and are harder to detect. The Yellowstone supervolcano was detected in the Sixties when infra-red satellite photographs revealed a magma-filled caldera 85km long and 45km wide. It has been on a regular eruption cycle of 600,000 years. The last eruption was 640,000 years ago, so the next is long overdue."

[...]

The impact of a Yellowstone eruption is terrifying to comprehend." says Professor McGuire. "Magma would be flung 50 kilometres into the atmosphere. Within a thousand kilometres virtually all life would be killed by falling ash, lava flows and the sheer explosive force of the eruption. One thousand cubic kilometres of lava would pour out of the volcano, enough to coat the whole of the USA with a layer 5 inches thick. The explosion would be the loudest noise heard by man for 75,000 years."

The long-term effects would be even more devastating. The thousands of cubic kilometres of ash that would shoot into the atmosphere would block out light from the sun, making global temperatures collapse. This is called a nuclear winter. A large percentage of the world's plant life would be killed by the ash and the drop in temperature. The resulting change in the world's climate would devastate the planet, and scientists know that another eruption is due - they just don't know when.

I found the first link via Arthur Silber who found it via Ken Hagler. The BBC (who coined the term) did a video special on supervolcanoes in 1999 (here's a transcript of the video program) and a web article in 2000.

I was born just over a month after Mount St. Helens exploded. When I was in my early elementary school years, we moved to Washington State and we visited the volcano several times. Standing in the shadow of so much destruction is very disquieting. This idea of Yellowstone going off would dwarf Mount St. Helens like a hydrogen bomb dwarfs a stick of TNT.

The world really doesn't need something like this now. Of course, it could turn into one of those over-hyped fatalistic reports about a meteor in a collision course with Earth that we hear every year. I hope that's the case.

What would happen socially if such a thing occured, assuming Professor McGuire's dire predictions come true? Obviously, the nations dependent on agriculture and food handouts would simply die off. Wealthier nations would be politcally unable to divert resources outside their borders with their own populations suddenly very sensitive to the food supply. I have little doubt that hundreds of millions would die within days as their razor-thin survival margins are wiped out. Hundreds of millions more would die within a week. Food and water rocket to utmost importance...but with supplies so dampened...hm...it would get real nasty.

And I'm just guessing about the direct sustenance impact. The panic such a global catastrophe would unleash would be stamped in every person's heart. Tens of trillions of dollars of market capital would need to be diverted to new activities and investments, assuming the familar order of today's functioning markets would survive the terror of the situation. Nothing approaching this magnitude that I can think of has occured to modern humanity.

With the sun next to useless, we'd need to find a way to survive without it. I'd predict a massive surge back towards coal and gas-fired power plants. With them, you can run growing lights for agriculture. Sure, you won't be able to run nearly enough for entire countries of people...but by the time this occurs, there won't be that many people left to worry about.

Then again, human nature might just give rise to anarchic gangs of thieves and vandals, threatening the important infrastructure. Personal defense would rise to second place on the short list of crucial priorities.

It's sometimes fun to disaster-think through hypothetical situations. Especially if the disaster could be as sudden and total as this one. Austin is over 1,500 miles from Cody, Wyoming. Cody is about 50 miles east of Yellowstone. How much of a warning might we get? Is it all downhill from there to here and would the Hill Country offer any protection? If the world's temperatures dropped radically, would that increase the size of the icecaps and therefore lower sea levels? Would it end the Israeli-Palestinian war? At what point does an external threat overwhelm the priorities of a conflict?

So many variables.

Make sure your flashlights have good batteries, folks. Never hurts to brush up on your taste for MREs, either.

UPDATE(10/14/2003 1:50am)
More good news: Salt Lake City area is due for a large quake. Utah isn't that far from Yellowstone...

Posted by drizzten at 01:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We can tell that the Canadian govt. is now serious about stamping out MJ, as they now have decided to produce it.

Seriously, my northen kin need to just let people grow their own. Solves all the problems of public-financed cost, individually-desired quality and quantity, and more efficient distribution (as well as more efficient everything else). Growing pot is something anyone can do with a bit of patience and some extra cash. Just stop punishing them for making choices for themselves.

Posted by drizzten at 12:15 AM | Permalink

Via Tacitus, a Reuters Edge story from Tikrit that is just insane.

Your average American soldier in post-war Iraq may want better food, more rest time and above all to go home, but the infantrymen out on night patrol in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit have only one wish -- to get shot at.

The soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Regiment swear they have divine protection and say the easiest place to be attacked is in what they call "RPG alley."

The mile-long main street's two-story homes, cafes and furniture shops are daubed with "Saddam is our leader" graffiti and the road is holed by grenades.

But the young and middle-aged soldiers sit tall or stand up in their open Humvee vehicles along what has become Tikrit's front line, daring the anti-American guerrillas who have killed or wounded U.S. soldiers almost daily throughout Iraq to try their luck with them.

As the convoy slowly turns into the street, Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell ends the sports banter and the jokes about his major almost falling from the truck with a curt, "Ok guys, heads up." It is after curfew, and only the low hum of the engines and occasional animal squeal can be heard.

Russell's men snap their black night-vision goggles over their eyes, train their rifles with white lights on roofs and rumble along at five miles an hour past dark side-streets that are ideal for hit-and-run assaults.

"We want the enemy to show himself. And when he does we deal with him," said Russell, who leads the convoy's first vehicle and is charged with hunting Saddam in Tikrit. "I want to show them that there is no place we will not go."

The risky tactic to lure out Saddam die-hards is the U.S. army's answer to an intensifying guerrilla war in Iraq, where the tanks and fighting vehicles of the world's only superpower can do little to stop a few men firing from the shadows.

Commanders in the area say such nightly patrols, combined with pre-dawn house raids, have wrested the initiative from the guerrillas and provided intelligence that makes them confident they are closing in on Saddam.

[...]

With an unlit Marlboro hanging from his lips, Mastro, 25, retells how Russell jumped from his truck and strode straight into the middle of a well-lit intersection taunting the unseen assailants. "Is that all you got? Is that all you got?"

This article, more than anything else I've read or seen or heard has cemented the reality in me. This is a significant war. And we bloggers are sitting on the sidelines, unable to do much but comment on a river that continues to move to it's own rhythm. It's progressed to the point where merely saying "crazy war" in response to an isolated incident like this is the natural reaction. A new normalcy added on top of the post-9/11 mindset.

Posted by drizzten at 12:35 AM | Permalink

Bureaucrash is an international network of activists of all political persuasions who believe that bloated, sprawling governments and the bureaucrats and politicians who control them ought to be mocked. Mercilessly.

Welcome to Bureaucrash! Their free trade vs. fair trade soda experiement during the World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun is a wonderful idea, though it doesn't do enough mocking for me. But some great protest photos (and there's way more where those came from) make up for it. :)

c0balt.com is their Austin cell, but I'm still coming to grips with their presentation...

Via Hit & Run.

Posted by drizzten at 09:31 PM | Permalink

Updates below.

Previously, I wrote about the 725 (750?) new laws the Texas legislature passed that went into effect on September 1. I missed one that's worth mentioning for it's stupidity.

Is any part of your car's license plate partially covered by a frame or any stickers? If it is, you're breaking the law, and don't be too surprised if a state trooper soon pulls you over.

DPS Trooper John Sampa explained, "If a bracket or some type of device obstructs the visibility of the license plate, meaning that it touches the letters, touches the numbers or alters the design of the plate, that gives an officer probable cause to make a traffic stop."

And give you a ticket with of fine of up to $200. The rationale behind this -- officers need to clearly see a license plate in case they have to investigate a potential suspect.

We went out on the road and saw lots of vehicles with illegal license plates. Some didn't even have a license plate on the front of the vehicle -- that's illegal, too.

Driver Jane Rulfs didn't know she was breaking the law. "Well, it's the one that the dealer put on. ? I'll take it off."

More:

Senate bill 439 makes it illegal to add any reflective material, lights or emblems that alter the license plate or make it hard to read. DPS say's its a law, and you will be pulled over and cited.

• 502.409. Wrong, Fictitious, or Unclean License Plate
  
  (a) A person commits an offense if the person attaches to or displays on a motor vehicle a number plate or registration insignia
  that:
  
  • (5) has letters, numbers, or other identification marks that because of blurring or reflective matter are not plainly visible at all times during daylight;
    
  • (6) has an attached illuminated device or [is a] sticker, decal, emblem, or other insignia that is not authorized by law and that interferes with the readability of the letters or numbers on the plate or the name of the state in which the vehicle is registered; or
    
  • (7) has a coating, covering, or protective material that:
    
    • (A) distorts angular visibility or detectability; or
      
    • (B) alters or obscures the letters or numbers on the plate, the color of the plate, or another original design feature of the plate.

Sgt. Waggener says it doesn't mean you're going to get stopped every time, but it is a violation and gives the police officer a reason to stop you.

To Mr. Lindsay, the jerks on the Infrastructure Development and Security Committee and Law Enforcement Committee that voted 9-0 in favor of the bill, the passive creeps in the House and Senate who voted for the bill, and that crummy bastard Rick Perry who signed it:

Fuck you.

UPDATE(12:45pm)
It just occured to me that trailer hitches could also be considered devices that obstruct the visibility of license plates. Why do we elect people who wish to do things like this to us???

UPDATE(1:40pm)
Regarding http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/pending/texasplate.asp...

The problem isn't that the law makes ALL brackets illegal (which is false), it's that the wording "...alters or obscures the letters, numbers, color, or original design features of the plate..." (my emphasis) is far too vague and easy to abuse. What's an "original design feature"? What "obscures the color"? You can bet some police officers will be using this law as a pretense to pull people over. That is what's wrong.

UPDATE(9/17/2003 5:55pm)
Much more here. I had a mini-debate with my father, a deputy sheriff in Comal County and have posted the contents.

UPDATED 2/15/2007 3:45pm
License Plate Frames Banned in Texas

Posted by drizzten at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Experience the arts without spending a dime

Sunday is the sixth annual Austin Museum Day, when more than 20 of the city's museums waive their admission fees all day.

Score one for laziness. Damn.

Posted by drizzten at 04:44 PM | Permalink

Once I voted, I decided to give myself a break from the news and come back after the votes for the amendments were tallied to see how things went.

In my opinion, pretty badly.

With 99.15% of the precincts reporting, here are the results:

Prop 1: 81.46% yes...18.54% no
Prop 2: 62.40% yes...37.60% no
Prop 3: 52.90% yes...47.10% no
Prop 4: 56.39% yes...43.61% no
Prop 5: 62.33% yes...37.67% no
Prop 6: 70.91% yes...29.09% no
Prop 7: 74.60% yes...25.40% no
Prop 8: 56.35% yes...43.65% no
Prop 9: 50.37% yes...49.63% no
Prop 10: 91.63% yes...8.37% no

...seeing a pattern here?...

Prop 11: 62.40% yes...37.60% no
Prop 12: 50.95% yes...49.05% no
Prop 13: 80.98% yes...19.02% no
Prop 14: 61.03% yes...38.97% no
Prop 15: 71.55% yes...28.45% no
Prop 16: 65.40% yes...34.60% no
Prop 17: 77.69% yes...22.31% no
Prop 18: 53.12% yes...46.88% no
Prop 19: 58.74% yes...41.26% no
Prop 20: 56.83% yes...43.17% no
Prop 21: 52.36% yes...47.64% no
Prop 22: 78.45% yes...21.55% no

Every single proposition passed. From the Austin-American Statesman:

The election drew more voters than anticipated with a 12 percent turnout statewide. Early predictions by state officials Friday were closer to 9 percent.

In Travis County, some results were different. Prop 3 got crushed, 37.81% against and 62.18% for. Prop 5 was barely beaten, 49.70% against and 50.29% for. Prop 8 was rejected, 41.92% against and 58.07% for. Prop 9 was rejected, 48.65% against and 51.34% for. Prop 12 was greatly rejected at 38.05% against and 61.94% for. Prop 18 was rejected, 40.52% against and 59.47% for. And Prop 20 was rejected, 43.01% against and 56.98% for.

The tax code has gotten more complicated with additional exemptions and more biased towards religion, the elderly, the disabled, and travel trailer owners. Municiple utility districts get more power and taxing authority. Unopposed candidates for electoral office now get to skip the election and go straight to their new jobs; additionally, those elected officials who are called up for military duty can appoint a successor to take their place until they return and those temporary officials would not be subject to an election until the term runs out. Used fire department equipment (which individual political districts pay for) can now be donated without compensation elsewhere. The Texas Department of Transportation now has the power to borrow money or issue notes from any source to finance it's operations. Government pensions get additional protection and shielding. Lower taxes on fire fighting services (as previously embodied in Rural Fire Prevention Districts) can now be raised higher (to be rolled into newly created Emergency Services Districts). We'll be dumping more money in the form of bonds into subsidies and payoffs to persuade the US military to close fewer bases in Texas. And we'll now be paying two salaries to public school, college, and university faculty members who serve on the governing boards of water districts: one salary for their educational job, and one for the water district job.

The last consitutional amendment vote was the same in that all the propositions passed.

Posted by drizzten at 03:13 PM | Permalink

How far would you go to follow your conscience? Vote? Openly state your beliefs regardless of whom you are talking to? Buy advertising to promote those beliefs? Engage in civil disobedience?

How about cutting your income so low you'd no longer be subject to the federal income tax?

Dave Gross:

When the war in Iraq started, or at any rate when it escalated into a full-blown invasion, I gave notice at work. My intention is to reduce my income below the threshold of taxation so as to stop paying income tax to the U.S. government.

I'm writing this to explain myself to my friends, who will notice a bit of a change of lifestyle in me in the coming months. Also, I write because writing calms my nerves, and I'm a bit nervous about this. I'm starting on an experiment, and I'm not sure where it will take me.

[...]

If I ignore my conscience, I'm committing a particularly dangerous form of suicide - choking off the guardian of my free will and leaving behind the sort of dangerous robot who's spent the last hundred years swerving from cradle to grave building gulags and genetically engineering more evil forms of smallpox. Not for me.

Then what of my choice whether or not to pay the federal income tax? The government demands taxes from me and doesn't say I have the option to pay them or not. But it's not that simple. I'm choosing to earn income, knowing that for every dollar I earn, I'm turning over certain of its cents to be spent by the U.S. government.

[snip list of complaints]

With all of that in mind, how can I continue to choose to fund this government when I have the alternative not to? Do I need money so badly that I'm willing to shovel coal into the monster's belly for it?

Turns out, the answer's "no." For me, it isn't worth it.

[...]

I've been wrestling with this decision for several months now, with my conscience ganging up with Thoreau to keep me honest with myself. Like most Americans, I support this government and its war - I have only to look at my W-2 form to see how much (box #2, for those of you keeping score at home).

But I am absolutely unable to give any moral support to the U.S. government, and that I have been a source of financial support to that government has been a stone in my shoe. Ultimately I have had to conclude that my lack of moral support doesn't amount to much, that if I am to follow my conscience I have to walk the path between my money and where my mouth is.

I've often thought what my employer's human resources department might think if I asked them to stop reporting my income to the IRS. I imagine a few seconds of blank wait-for-the-punchline expectance, followed by a "are you serious?" line of questioning. I'd explain that I no longer want to have X-percent of my income taken from me to be spent on a great many things I wish I wasn't funding. There would probably be another bit of silence, followed with a "but it's the law - we have to report it. Besides, what about the needs of the people that money goes to?" And at that point, I'd end the experiment and walk away, unwilling to get into the reasons why I find that response unworthy.

I mean, I'd be on the clock at the time, right? I wouldn't want to waste the time it takes to pay for the government's needs. How selfish of me!

Via No Treason.

UPDATE(12/11/2003 1:34am)
A related post here.

UPDATE(4/15/2004 2:59pm)
It's Income Tax Day. Read it and weep.

Posted by drizzten at 10:58 PM | Permalink

Previously, I wrote a post about the situation with the Texas Senate Democrats who fled the state to deny the legislative body a quorum in the lastest governor-called special session to deal with Congressional redistricting. Rick Perry has indeed called a third session and it begins next Monday. The Democrats have decided to attend, almost entirely due to the fact that Senator Whitmire choose to return after deciding the fight was best fought in the Senate.

Now the last major roadblock the Democrats have thrown up has been defeated.

Three federal judges on Friday cleared the way for the Legislature to resume its fight over congressional redistricting by dismissing a lawsuit brought by Senate Democrats.

The ruling would allow only 16 senators — instead of the customary 21 — to agree to consider a new congressional map, making it impossible for the Democratic minority to stop the issue outright.

The judges, however, left open the possibility of weighing in later on whether Senate Republicans could levy fines against senators who fled to New Mexico for 45 days rather than vote on a new congressional map.

In the four-page ruling, the judges said the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voting rights, does not extend to telling the Texas Senate how to conduct its internal business.

Copyright 2001-2003 Cox Texas Newspapers, L.P. All rights reserved.

So that's that. Without this bit of legal covering, it is almost guaranteed some form of redistricting will occur in this session.

The judges, however, left unresolved the issue of whether the Senate Republicans legally could fine the missing senators $57,000 each for boycotting.

UPDATE(9/23/2003 11:15pm)
More here.

UPDATE(10/12/2003 9:34pm)
Big News: a plan has been finalized and passed by both the House and the Senate.

Posted by drizzten at 06:57 PM | Permalink

After not voting in the last major election due to personal incompetence (didn't get my registration changed in time...), I took the time to vote on the 22 Texas Constitutional Amendments.

My precinct is 213, located at Graham Elementary School. It isn't far from my apartment, so I walked over there this afternoon once I decided how I was going to vote. It's located on Tom Adams Drive, itself off Braker Lane...but there wasn't a sign announcing the voting location at the intersection. There was a sign out in front of the school, but you'd never safelt see it from Braker while driving. The parking lot in front was empty except for three or four Buick-class cars.

My suspicions were confirmed with my entry: the only people inside were three elderly voting clerks and assistents. I confirmed my identity and displayed my registration card. They were pleasant people and I had no problems with them.

The new digital voting system is nifty. It took me a few seconds to figure out how to work the machine, but it was painless and quick. eSlate's Hart InterCivic may have a winner.

Here's how I voted:

Previously, I posted about the Lemonade Case of Avigayil Wardein, daughter of KC Shaw. While checking some Google referrers, I came across this post from Dan at nthyear.com. Dan found this link and wanted to, as he says in the title of the post, reveal the "truth about the lemonade stand permit story." Curious, I clicked the link and lo and behold:

As portrayed nationwide, the story of the little lemonade girl, the nasty neighbor and big, ugly government goes something like this:

A 6-year-old girl in sweltering Southwest Florida tries to make a little summer money by starting a lemonade stand. A crabby neighbor demands that the stand be licensed or shut down. Heavy-handed police officers force the child out of business.

Finally, stingy city officials cave to public pressure and grant the license - for free.

But the reality of Avigayil Wardein's lemonade adventure is different from the story repeated on national radio and television shows, and ultimately distorted on talk radio and around the world via the Internet.

For starters, police didn't really shut down the stand, much less arrest any children, as some have claimed. And the city had granted the license without a fee long before the first word about the controversy was broadcast or printed.

In truth, it's a rather pedestrian tale of a long-running neighborhood dispute over a carport radio and a neighbor who retaliated for months of complaints from next door by reluctantly asking police to check on the stand.

And if it hadn't given the city of Naples such a nationwide black eye as America's anti-Mayberry, police Chief Steven Moore would only chuckle at what everyone calls simply "The Lemonade Case."

"It's really no different from hundreds of complaints that we respond to all the time," Moore said this week. "But the mother has done an excellent job of marketing this."

The mother is KC Shaw, 49, a savvy, polished technology consultant. Her neighbor is Sheila Lewis, a 52-year-old Realtor who has consistently refused to grant interviews. She also declined to comment for this story.

Shaw moved into the little home south of Naples' postcard-perfect downtown about three years ago. And for a year or so, she and Lewis apparently got along fine.

But Shaw became annoyed by Lewis' habit of playing a radio outside, beneath her carport. And, despite a large, palm hedge separating Lewis' carport from Shaw's, the radio could still be heard next door.

"When she would play her music too loud, I would call her and she would comply and turn it down," Shaw said this week. "But at some point, I guess she got tired of me calling and she told me not to call her again.

"So I really have had no choice but to use the police for volume control."

When I first moved to the apartment I live in now, I played my music too loud for two different neighbors. Both came to my door and asked me to turn it down...one of them came twice. I have since changed my listening habits (the bass was the big problem, EQ-ing it solved most of the trouble) out of respect, as I'd hope my neighbors would respect me if I asked the same of them.

So apparently Ms. Lewis didn't get the hint that her music habits annoyed her neighbor. Does that give the neighbor the right to call the cops and have them get the volume turned down, through the threat of force?

Naples police records show that Shaw has called police six times since October to complain about Lewis' radio. Each time, police arrived and asked that the volume be turned down or found that it already was. Then they left.

Lewis has called police just once about Shaw. But her call made it all the way to the Late Show with David Letterman.

[...]

The call Lewis made contradicts many of the accounts on the Internet and the airwaves. For starters, a recording of the call makes it clear that Lewis never demanded that the stand be closed or anyone be cited. And she made no effort to disguise her motivation.

"She calls the police on me if my father turns the radio on once over there. . . . So I mean, she drives me just nuts. Now today she's got her little 5-year-old out there, unattended, with a stand. Right at the corner," Lewis told a dispatcher. "Could you just like send the guys there . . . and at least tell them that she is supposed to have a permit so she doesn't start doing this every day this year."

For her part, Shaw acknowledges that she knew the call was coming. As she was setting up the stand with Avigayil and other neighborhood children on the morning of Friday, June 13, Lewis came out and asked if she had a permit, Shaw recalled.

"I said, "It's a lemonade stand, Sheila. I don't need a permit,' " Shaw said. "Then she said she was going to call the police. She said, "Now you'll know how it feels.' "

I'm happy the situation didn't escalate to violence, but the whole deal seems so preventable.

It took just a few minutes for Shaw to recognize the potential in that confrontation.

By Shaw's account, a neighbor, whose child was also working at the stand, ran inside to call a local television station before police had even arrived. The station passed on the story - until there was a story.

The widely circulated tale diverges from reality here again. Though it has been reported that Naples police officers shut down the stand, a record of the call says the officers went to the home on ly to advise the mother of the ordinance. Chief Moore cautions that they never even got the chance to act, as Shaw voluntarily closed as soon as the officers arrived.

"When we got there the mother said she would close down the stand until she could get a permit, and that's what she did," Moore said. "People have us actually taking two 6-year-olds in handcuffs. I got an angry e-mail like that today. No one seems really interested in what actually happened."

Naples police busted Avigayil on June 13 for selling lemonade without a city permit.

[...]

On June 13, Naples police responded to a complaint from an anonymous neighbor who grumbled about the permit-less lemonade stand on the corner of Sixth Street and 11th Avenue South.

Although the Naples police officer who answered the call was only doing his job, he felt so bad he bought a cup of lemonade. City officials shook their heads in shame. So they waived the permit fee, which was $35.

Many of the other calls have been from people angry with the neighbor, whom the family believes complained about the stand. The caller didn't reveal her name to police, so it isn't confirmed that the neighbor is the woman who placed the call.

Shaw's neighbor has been unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts to reach her this week.

Naples police officers shut down a lemonade stand Avigayil was operating with friends at the end of her driveway on 11th Avenue South on Friday.

As for the city caving in to public pressure, well, there was no pressure. By the time Shaw arrived to pick up a permit, city staffers had decided that the fee would be waived and the stand licensed - all before the first story had appeared on television or in the newspaper.

But it wasn't long before.

"As I was leaving City Hall, I saw a camera crew there interviewing someone," Shaw said. "So I gave them my card, and told them, "I have this little human interest story. . . .' "

The local NBC station broadcast a story on June 17. From there, the story went to the station's Web site, to the Matt Drudge Web site, to the Naples Daily News, to the Associated Press and to MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, Fox's Bill O' Reilly, CNN, Rush Limbaugh and radio stations and newspapers around the world.

By her count, Shaw has done more than 40 interviews with radio stations across the country. Though the city had waived the permit fee before anyone outside of 11th Avenue S in Naples had ever heard of Avigayil, donations started pouring in. Shaw said she has started a college fund that has "a few hundred dollars."

[...]

"I bet there are lots of kids in lots of neighborhoods throughout this town (and certainly elsewhere) who would enjoy having free donations for their college education," wrote neighbor Susan Weising in a guest commentary for the Naples Daily News. "Has anyone bothered to check out the facts on whether our now-famous family has any issues with nearby neighbors?"

[...]

"All these sympathetic letters about Avigayil breaking the law make me sick," wrote Frank Johnson of nearby Bonita Springs. "Let's have all these vehement advocates of lemonade stands, tree houses, ramshackle fruit stalls and Girl Scout cookie booths . . . come out from under their rocks and see a row of these on their streets! And then, watch out "crabby neighbors!' "

While there are four neighborhood children who work the stand regularly, most of the attention, and promotion, has fallen on Avigayil. She went on Letterman, has given countless interviews and is now going to be the national representative for the Kids Only! Sunny Day Play Lemonade Stand ($24.99), a plastic, ready-to-operate lemonade stand. The boxes will soon carry Avigayil's photo.

"It's been a wild ride, and Avi might just get college paid for out of it," Shaw said.

© St. Petersburg Times

Posted by drizzten at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

[Updates below.]

Reposted from last year with some minor edits:

Austin is an hour behind NYC, so when I got in to work (five minutes late, as usual) it was 9am there.

It has always been my "system" to get into work and spend the first thirty or forty-five minutes surfing news sites and generally forcing myself awake. Right around the time the first plane hit, I noticed the Net was getting laggy--way more than usual. I checked the Drudge Report one last time, saw nothing out of the ordinary, and then bent down to check on some recently-delivered division mail. Just another Tuesday morning, one that I wished I was spending asleep in bed rather than in the office.

A few minutes later, I heard someone walking down the hallway from the section next to ours, saying something about New York, the Trade Center, and an explosion. I leaned over to listen, but that's all she was saying. Curious, I refreshed Drudge's site and got...nothing. Server error. Hrm. I checked CNN and it was down as well. Oookay... I browsed to all the major newsmedia's websites only to have the same thing happen. Really annoyed (and beginning to get worried), I checked Slashdot. And then there they were, two articles in a row, both stuffed with hundreds of posts, far above and beyond what the typical article gets.

About this time, CNN had put up a super stripped-down version of it's home page, just a blank white background and text. I began to wonder about my cousin who lived in Manhattan.

As people began to leave their cubes and talk about what was happening, I realized we had a TV with an antenna. I ran over to a supervisor's room, grabbed the set, plugged it in, and tuned the "rabbit ears" in order to pick up a local signal.

My co-workers and I gathered around the TV just after the second plane hit.
The complete confusion of the situation was enormous. No one knew what was happening, not anyone on the scene, not anyone in the air, not anyone around me. An employee kept repeating, "This is war. You know this is. Someone did this to us...this is no accident. It's a war."

Everyone watched the towers go down in shocked horror. People began to hit their cell phones, ringing friends and family. I simply sat there, unable to put myself in the places of the hundreds (thousands?) of people who had just fell 90 stories in a firey concrete maelstrom.

By now, no one was working anywhere in the building I was in. It seemed the whole floor was crowded around the TV, asking the same unanswerable questions.

I suddenly remembered how hungry I was, so I drove hell-bent to a Schlotzsky's which had a cable TV connection, ordered my food, and sat at the table nearest to it, turning up the volume. The lunch crowd grew fast, a tension I've never felt in the air. Not a single person said anything while we ate. I don't think anyone knew what to say. We just listened to the announcers and occasionally turned up the volume more for the expanding crowd.

After lunch, I drove back to work, unable to expell the mental-engraved video of the planes ramming the buildings.

The rest of the day was spent in front of the TV, switching channels in order to find something new to hear about. The Net recovered, albeit slowly, and I would walk between PC and TV in order to reconcile what I had learned.
I remember watching the news at home that night, talking to my family about the safety of my cousin (who was alright), and thinking how much this was going to change the world.

I remember that day pretty fucking well.

Posted by drizzten at 12:14 AM | Permalink

Continuing from my last post...the inevitable has occured.

Texas Senate Democrats to End N.M. Exile

Ten Texas Democrats who have been boycotting a vote on a GOP congressional redistricting plan are leaving their self-imposed exile in New Mexico and returning home for a court hearing and another special legislative session.

State Sen. Judith Zaffirini said Tuesday that the Democrats agreed Monday night to attend the court hearing in Laredo. After that, "the plan is we would return to our home districts," to wait until Gov. Rick Perry calls another special session, Zaffirini said.

Their decision was made after one of their Democratic colleagues, Sen. John Whitmire, abandoned the boycott last week and said he would attend a third special session if Perry calls one. Whitmire's presence would give the Senate the quorum it needs to conduct business.

"If (Whitmire) makes a quorum, then we need to be on the Senate floor," Zaffirini said.

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

State lawmakers will be back at work Monday. Gov. Rick Perry called a third special session for congressional redistricting.

The decision follows two special sessions on congressional redistricting during the summer. Neither produced a new redistricting plan as Democrats in the Texas Senate blocked a floor vote on a proposal. This time, the Senate Democrats holding out in New Mexico should be back in Austin.

The remaining 10 Senate Democrats boycotting the redistricting process released a statement Tuesday.

"[The] betrayal by a former member of the Texas 11 moves the battlefield. It makes it imperative that we, the Texas 11 Minus One, return to Texas to fight Whitmire and the Republicans to prevent this partisan power-grab."

Whitmire said he opposes redrawing the state's 32 congressional districts, but that it was time to end the stalemate. He has said the Democrats cannot win because the Republicans outnumber them and are determined to do the redistricting.

"If the governor does call another unnecessary special session, I intend to fight redistricting on the Senate floor. I will be present," Whitmire said in a news conference in the Texas Senate chambers.

So what does this mean overall? Well, it's not like the Republicans can even agree on the proposal itself.

In Austin on Monday, Perry met with Republican legislative leaders to plan another special session on the redistricting amid one remaining obstacle, getting agreement among the Republicans themselves.

At issue is a squabble between House and Senate Republicans over the shape of a West Texas congressional district that currently includes Midland and Lubbock.

Sen. Robert Duncan, of Lubbock, wants to keep the district largely intact. House Speaker Tom Craddick wants new boundaries in which Midland has its own district.

"There is no deal on West Texas," Craddick spokesman Bob Richter said Monday after a meeting of the state's top three GOP officials.

Craddick, Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst met for about an hour in the governor's office.

So I don't really know what will happen. There will be a lot of fighting ahead. The redistricting plan I like the most is not likely at all to get any serious consideration. More time and money will be wasted on this.

UPDATE(9/23/2003 11:16pm)
More here.

UPDATE(10/12/2003 9:34pm)
Big News: a plan has been finalized and passed by both the House and the Senate.

Posted by drizzten at 10:44 PM | Permalink

[Updates below.]

Josh Claybourn has the horrifying goods.

I think it's safe to say Bush straight up lied to the country when he said he'd act in the name of smaller government. Which means he lied to me.

UPDATE(8:50am)
A few sobering details of Bush's request for $87 billion in new funding:

Bush's $87 billion figure is the largest emergency spending request since the opening months of World War II, according to Pat Towell, a defense fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The emergency spending act that followed the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the launching of the war in Afghanistan totaled $20 billion.

To put it in perspective, Bush hopes to spend more in Iraq and Afghanistan than all 50 states say they need -- $78 billion -- to finance the budget shortfalls they anticipate for 2004.

The request is higher than the $74 billion the Defense Department plans to spend on all new weapons purchases next year, and higher than the $29.5 billion the Education Department hopes to spend on elementary and secondary education plus the $41.3 billion the administration plans to spend to defend the homeland.

With $166 billion spent or requested, Bush's war spending in 2003 and 2004 already exceeds the inflation-adjusted costs of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War and the Persian Gulf War combined, according to a study by Yale University economist William D. Nordhaus. The Iraq war approaches the $191 billion inflation-adjusted cost of World War I.

UPDATE(6/18/2004 5:09pm)
Whom to Vote For?

Posted by drizzten at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

After the 9/11 WTC terrorism attacks, many people in the United States decided to show patriotic support and mourn the dead by attaching small replicas of the US flag on their cars. Despite the consternation of some concerning an overdose of flag display on an ever-widening variety of products, I've generally not concerned myself with it. I have a small sticker on my car in the lower right corner of the rear window. It's behind the tinting, so it isn't very bold, but it is visible. I never wanted to put anything else on my car, nothing like some of the mini-shrines like I saw in Corpus Christi, the rears of cars and trucks utilized as roving Old Glory/WTC/Police/Fireman/Bush/GOP billboards (all very tough-guy Jacksonian-ish). I love the United States and would rather be here than anywhere else, but I'm not a slavish and uncritical admirer.

Now, those cases of pro-American advertising gone awry are unpleasant and overload my sensibilities. But seeing that doesn't make me as angry as seeing some dunce driving down the highway with a torn, tattered, and wind-ripped flag on his or her antenna or clipped to a window.

I want to pull one of these people to the side and ask them to look at what they've done to the thing they so proudly show off. Would they willingly display their children by beating them up in public? Certainly they wouldn't invite friends over to check out a new home theater system and then proceed to blast it with a fire hose. It doesn't make any sense.

Stickers are so much better. Firstly, they last longer. They can't be stolen or worn by the elements, provided you stick them to the inside of the window like I have. The variety is much greater. And they won't be able to touch the ground. A friend and I were done eating at the Bill Miller's on Burnet Rd and I saw a fabric antenna flag laying on the concrete of the parking lot's entrance.

I'm no longer a Boy Scout, I'm not on a military base or in a military family, there weren't bystanders to see it, and I'm not a nationalist or a hyper-patriot. But gawddamn was I pissed to see the flag laying there, waiting to get run over or blown into a gutter. I stopped by car and walked out to pick it up and it now resides in my apartment.

I don't know if this post will make a difference, but I hope it does. There are better and more respectful ways to demonstrate your love for America than an antenna flag.

Posted by drizzten at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The nights are getting cooler, the days growing less humid, the mornings are taking longer to show up, and the nights linger on.

Ahhh.

The signs of fall. So much better than summer. Winter is my favorite time of the year, but fall is usually the one I welcome the most. Living in central Texas, I have to take what I'm offered.

Posted by drizzten at 09:13 PM | Permalink

[Updates below.]

Among other things...

Clark Kindrick would rather make the 45-minute drive to Arkansas for beer than drink the "watery'' low-point brew sold in Oklahoma.

Kindrick, who lives in Porum, also picks up a six-pack in Texas whenever he crosses the Red River for his manufacturing business.

"I stock up,'' he said. "It's a taste difference.''

Kindrick is among the Oklahomans who find state laws about beer antiquated, confusing and downright annoying. But in the heart of the Bible Belt, there isn't much of a movement to change them _ at least not an outspoken one.

"They're throwbacks to the first 50 years of Oklahoma's life as a state when we were under prohibition,'' Attorney General Drew Edmondson said.

"I would assume that there is not a constituency for change and there is a constituency to keep things the way they are.''

It's not just Oklahoma's faith-based roots that have kept prohibition-era laws on the books. Low-point beer distributors aren't interested in changing the laws because they would risk having to follow the more stringent ones imposed on liquor stores.

Oklahoma convenience and grocery stores cannot sell beer or wine coolers with more than 3.2 percent alcohol. Big-name domestic breweries, including Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors, brew lower-point beer for the Sooner State and five others. Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota and Utah also sell 3.2 beer.

Liquor stores in Oklahoma can sell beer with higher alcohol content, but they have more rules to follow. For one, they have to sell beer at room temperature. Also, liquor stores are allowed to be open only from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

That means there's no such thing as a last-minute run to get brandy or wine for a Sunday night meal.

From my uninformed perspective, it seems these laws should be easy to fight, particularly the bit about no liquor sales on Sunday. Why? I'm pretty certain the answer has something to do with religion and it's followers. I'd assume imposing a law mostly on the basis of religious piety would be enough to abolish it. Then again, I have a lot of crazy thoughts.

I love the exact percentage. What threshold is crossed with beer ober 3.2% alcohol? Is that when the Devil takes you? Does drinking a Schlitz (4%+) turn you into a deviant? It's just so infuriatingly random and pointless to me.

Then there is the deliberate F.U. the law gives to those looking to buy stronger beer at liquor stores by forcing them to sell the stuff at room temperature. I'm beyond riposte towards this idea. It's just stupid. It's a freakin' roadbump in the way of enjoying strong beer. It merely delays the inevitable. If these bastards were honestly bothered with some beer-fueled crime wave or display of immorality, they'd just ban the shit and not give Oklahomans the chance to buy it. It is complete hypocrisy.

Some argue the beer sold in Oklahoma grocery stores isn't that much different from beer sold elsewhere.

Oklahoma low-point beer is 3.2 percent alcohol by weight and 4 percent alcohol by volume, according to an Anheuser-Busch spokesman. The company's regular brew is 4 percent alcohol by weight and 5 percent alcohol by volume, though actual percentages vary depending on the batch.

"What!?"

"You have a problem with this?"

"What the hell is the point? Why the intrusion of privacy, the violation of personal property?"

"Geez, it's not like we're telling everyone where they can swim."

"So it doesn't bother you at all that the state can just decide to force everyone who wants to swim here to submit to a blood sample?"

"I don't see your point."

"What if I just kick you right now?" *kicks*

"Hey! Ouch, you jerk!"

"See my point?"

"Ow, no...how does that relate to anything?"

"I give up."

"You buy a six-pack of Bud in Texas, you buy a seven-pack in Oklahoma for the same punch,'' said Oliver Delaney, president of the Oklahoma Malt Beverage Association.

Delaney is among those who don't want the law to change, at least not right now.

If Oklahoma stopped selling low-point beer, distributors might have to follow the strict rules imposed on liquor stores. They wouldn't be able to sell beer on Sundays, for starters.

"We have one of the most idyllic situations in the United States,'' Delaney said. "It looks like that's backward to some people, but 3.2 beer is in all 77 counties in the state. We have access to over 7,000 markets.''

Big-name domestic brewers are allowed to sell beer with more than 3.2 percent alcohol in Oklahoma liquor stores, but they don't because of the state's franchise law.

Low-point beer distributors in Oklahoma become franchisees of the big-name brewers and must follow their standards regarding expiration dates, promotions and advertising. But Oklahoma does not allow franchising for liquor stores _ if brewers bring their product into Oklahoma, they have to sell it to anyone.

Oklahoma liquor stores sold big-name domestic beer until the late 1970s, when the brewers pulled their strong beer out of the state.

When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, its constitution said it would be dry. The state remained dry until after prohibition, when residents voted in the mid-1930s to allow nonintoxicating beverages _ or beer with no more than 3.2 percent alcohol _ as a way to get around the constitutional ban.

In 1959, voters passed a constitutional amendment allowing beer in excess of 3.2 to be sold in liquor stores.

It wasn't until 1985 that Oklahoma allowed counties to vote on so-called liquor by the drink. Before that, residents had to bring their own bottle of liquor to private clubs, where they paid a membership fee.

To this day, 37 counties do not allow liquor by the drink.

Wrong.

Oklahoma isn't the only state with confusing beer laws.

In Texas, counties are allowed to vote wet or dry. In dry counties, there are no liquor stores and residents have to become card-holding members of clubs to drink in bars and restaurants.

Colorado laws are similar to Oklahoma's _ grocery stores cannot sell beer in excess of 3.2. But strong beers from Bud, Coors and Miller are available cold at liquor stores.

And in Utah, only low-point brew is sold in grocery and convenience stores. The state owns Utah's liquor stores, which don't sell Bud, Miller or Coors with regular alcohol content.

In some states, grocery stores aren't allowed to sell any alcohol.

Among hundreds of other examples, the laws the states and the feds have enacted against alcohol demonstrate the contempt their enactors and supporters hold towards individual responsibility, freedom, and the public.

UPDATE(10/3/2003 11:40am)
The Agitator has more on stupid Texas liquor laws.

UPDATE(5/28/2004 4:17pm)
Georgetown is worse that I thought (Austin-American Statesman link will rot):Since the repeal of Prohibition, everyone in this straight-laced city has assumed liquor stores weren't allowed near their cherished courthouse square.

Turns out, according to the Williamson County clerk's office, everyone was wrong.

When Michael Vickers opens his Austin Avenue liquor store, Vic's, near the banks of the San Gabriel River today, he'll be the first to take advantage of the county clerk's recent determination that it is legal to sell liquor and wine north of Texas 29. In the past, many business owners have assumed or been told it was not.

[...]

The county clerk's office has only recently completed its study of Williamson County's confusing liquor laws, prompted several years back when restaurants in Round Rock's La Frontera development started applying for liquor licenses. At the time, all County Clerk Nancy Rister had to go by was an old map shaded with colored pencils. Research into the county's past liquor elections ensued.

"To put it simply, a small portion of the county is dry and everything else is seven shades of wet," she said.

Most of those shades can be found in the Georgetown area, where overlapping regulations and various changes in county precinct lines over the years have created havoc for her office.

For instance, restaurants in the portion of Georgetown east of Interstate 35 and north of Texas 29 require customers to join a private club before they can serve them alcohol.

"Nobody really knows what's what," said Paul Davis, who handles most of the liquor permit requests that come before the county. "It's a complete mess."

Copyright 2001-2004 Cox Texas Newspapers, L.P. All rights reserved.

Unreal. Yet another reason why no government entity - federal all the way down to county - should have the right to outlaw or regulate alcohol.

Posted by drizzten at 05:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

[Updates below.]

I've been remiss in not following the Austin city budget as it has evolved. But one thing is worth mentioning, on page two of the The City of Austin (PDF) organizational and informational download. I'll crudely recreate it here.

City of Austin, Texas
City Council Priorities
2003-4

Youth, Family, and
Neighborhood Vitality

Affordability

Hmm.

The last thing on the list is fiscal responsibility. I shouldn't be surprised.

UPDATE(6/3/2004 1:13pm)
Can't Cut the Budget; Politicians Will Eat Me!

UPDATE 9/13/2004 4:43pm
The 2004-2005 City of Austin budget is here!

Posted by drizzten at 01:11 PM | Permalink

Previously, I talked about how a quorum in the Texas Senate may be at hand in the near future through the actions of Senator John Whitmire. This Statesman article seems to draw that conclusion as well.

The Democrat who abandoned a boycott of the Texas Senate promised Friday to show up to fight congressional redistricting if Gov. Rick Perry calls a third special session.

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, who had made contradictory statements about whether he would show up and allow the topic to come up for debate, said, "I will be present." Twenty-one of the 31 senators must be present to conduct business.

At a news conference on the Senate floor, Whitmire criticized the Republicans' redistricting attempts as "a wasteful power grab," but he said Democrats are making a mistake attacking President Bush on the issue.

The 10 boycotting Democrats are scheduling appearances in Chicago, Los Angeles, Florida and other sites as part of a national Democratic campaign claiming that Republicans are trying to reverse elections through the California recall, the Texas redistricting flap and the 2000 presidential electoral controversy in Florida.

From the beginning of the boycott, Whitmire said he had doubts about leaving the state. He said he thought it was a bad public relations move and the Democrats would have done better to leave the Capitol but stay in Austin, daring the Republican leadership to arrest them.

Whitmire said boycotting longer, however, would be futile as long as Perry is determined to call a series of special sessions and Republicans are willing to consider moving the primary election dates.

"I'm a great Democrat, but I can count," said Whitmire, referring the Republicans' large majorities in both chambers of the Legislature.

He said the Democrats must fight redistricting in the Legislature, despite the GOP's advantage, then appeal any resulting map to the courts.

Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin, is one of the 10 Democrats still boycotting. After watching Whitmire's news conference on the Internet, Barrientos said, "He looked like he was grasping for a rationale for what he's doing. Frankly, it's kind of sad to me."

Copyright 2001-2003 Cox Texas Newspapers, L.P. All rights reserved.

Of course, I'm also sick of the GOP for pushing this issue. This insistence has reportedly cost the state $3.4 million from these special sessions.

Lots of people are pissed at this whole charade, in and outside the government.

Polls indicate the players in the bitter Texas battle over congressional redistricting may pay a heavy price in the next election, but the biggest loser may be the state itself.

[...]

"It is my very real fear that the Senate will not have the same collegial atmosphere that it has over my career and I don't know how long it will be before it is restored, if ever," said Sen. Bill Ratliff, a veteran Republican lawmaker from East Texas.

[...]

If Perry calls a third session and Whitmire shows up that doesn't solve all the problems. There is still disagreement among Republicans over how to draw new congressional lines in West Texas and holdout Democrats face fines they say they will not pay.

Public opinion is also negative for Perry and the Legislature after months of wrangling that some residents view as embarrassing for Texas.

For the first time since Perry became governor in 2000, more people disapprove of his job performance than approve. Some 44 percent of respondents give him high marks and 48 percent rate his performance as fair or poor in The Texas Poll conducted by the Scripps Data Center.

About 68 percent of the 1,000 Texans surveyed Aug. 7-21 also said they disapproved of the job the Legislature has done this year, according to the poll. The respondents were not asked to rate the legislators by party but the public's displeasure seems apparent.

"There is enough tar there to cover everybody," said Bruce Buchanan, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

At least one member of the Texas 11 is expected at each stop on the tour sponsored by MoveOn.org, an online advocacy group for Democratic causes that has raised $1 million for the Texas 11. The "Defending Democracy Tour" will visit Philadelphia, Miami, New York City, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The remaining members of the Texas 11 received more national exposure Thursday when three of the candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination visited during a stop in Albuquerque for a national televised debate. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri paid their respects.

Copyright © 2001-2003 United Press International

Then there's the issue of the two-thirds rule suspension lawsuit.

The Texas Legislature entered the Labor Day holiday with little relief from the partisan re-redistricting rhetoric, and indeed, with hardly any holiday at all. The second special session ended without result Aug. 26; the following day Laredo federal District Judge George Kazen heard initial pleadings in the Senate Democrats' lawsuit against Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst et al. for abandoning the Senate's two-thirds rule and allowing Republican senators to impose fines and sanctions on the minority Democrats. The suit alleges both actions violate the federal Voting Rights Act. Kazen referred the matter, as well as the Democrats' request for a temporary restraining order to allow them to return home without fear of arrest, to a three-judge panel appointed shortly thereafter by U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King. The panel, expected to rule in the next couple of weeks, includes Democratic appointee Kazen and GOP appointees Lee Rosenthal and Patrick Higgenbotham. (Higgenbotham served on the three-judge panel that drew the current Texas congressional district map in 2001.)

Copyright © 1995-2003 Austin Chronicle Corp. All rights reserved.

A court hearing in Laredo gave the Democrats some hope, but didn't produce an immediate avenue for their return.

Federal Judge George Kazen said last week that he doesn't think Republican efforts to draw new congressional districts in Texas violate Democrats' rights, as the Democrats argued in a lawsuit. But he also thinks a lawsuit filed by the quorum-busting senators raises enough questions to ask the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to appoint two other judges to join him in a panel that could issue a ruling within a few weeks.

Copyright 2003 by Click2Houston.com.

Austin Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos spoke to the Chronicle Friday by phone en route to Albuquerque from Denver, where he and Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso had joined a fundraiser sponsored by already re-redistricted Colorado Democrats. Barrientos said that he and his fellow Dem absentees might have to spend several more weeks in exile -- perhaps at least another month -- before the siege is ended. "The closer we get to October 6," he noted, "the more difficult it is for them to get DOJ review in a timely fashion."

And one more bit on Barrientos.

Barrientos said the Democrats have been heartened by an upwelling of national support, and that the next steps may be up to the federal courts, what the House might do in the event of another session call, and "public pressure that might come down on the governor." "We are not acting in a partisan cause, nor a racial cause," said Barrientos. "We are acting in defense of democracy and of fairness."

Copyright © 1995-2003 Austin Chronicle Corp. All rights reserved.

Bullshit.

UPDATE(9/7/2003 3:50pm)
Of note:

Whitmire originally planned to hold his news conference in the Lieutenant Governor's Press Conference Room. But a resolution passed by Senate Republicans last month barred him from using that room until he paid $57,000 in fines for breaking the Senate's quorum.

"It's a sad day when a senator can't use the press room," Whitmire said.

Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

September 4, 2003 6:03 PM

WHITMIRE DENIED USE OF SENATE PRESS ROOM

Press conference scheduled for 11 a.m. tomorrow

Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston) is holding a press conference at the Capitol tomorrow at 11 a.m. but he cannot say yet which room he will use.

Whitmire, Dean of the Senate, assumed he could use the Senate Press Room and his Capitol staff told reporters earlier today that that was where the press conference would be held.

Not so fast, said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst spokesman Mark Miner. "No reservations for conference rooms, press conference rooms will be allowed," said Miner, quoting the motion passed by Senate Republicans that penalized the Senate Democrats for busting a quorum during the second special session.

Republicans said the sanctions would be lifted when the Democrats had paid the penalties imposed for the walkout.

According to Whitmire spokeswoman Blanca Laborde, the Senate's longest serving member has not paid his $57,000 fine.

© Copyright September 4, 2003 by Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved

Via Off the Kuff and Burnt Orange Report.

UPDATE(9/9/2003 10:45pm)
More here.

UPDATE(10/12/2003 9:34pm)
Big News: a plan has been finalized and passed by both the House and the Senate.

Posted by drizzten at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

...such as avoiding this:

HIGH SCHOOL NON-CONFIDENTIAL

By Lisa Sorg 09/04/2003

Schools must allow military recruiters to mine student information lists - or risk losing federal funding

In a speech delivered last January, President George W. Bush declared that the No Child Left Behind Act, which became federal law in 2002, is "the most meaningful education reform, probably ever," adding, "I believe in local control of schools."

Yet Bush failed to mention an overlooked, but crucial section in the act that wrests control from U.S. school districts and thrusts it into the hands of the feds. A provision in the The No Child Left Behind Act mandates that schools receiving federal funding allow military recruiters to access junior and seniors' personal information - name, address, and phone number - primarily through student directory lists. Parents and students can "opt-out," or ask that the school not release the information to recruiters, but the exemption is not automatic, and many don't understand the significance of the choice.

The Bush administration added an incentive for schools to comply with this portion of the act: Public or private (but not religious) schools that refuse to comply risk losing their federal funding. That is a chance few schools can take: Locally, that would mean an $80 million penalty in the San Antonio Independent School District alone.

Since public schools rarely get the funding they would like or need from the independent politicial district they reside in, so they turn to the state. Since the state's contribution often doesn't meet their goals, they then turn to the federal government to take up some of the slack. It's casting a progressively wider net, trolling for money, and taxing it from people who will never interact with the school. We end up paying, in small part, a bit of a huge portion of the country's education. I won't even get into the federal college grant and scholarship programs.

All of this conspires to create a system primed for corruption, influence-peddling, distortion, and waste. And then we get someone like Bush (and Wentworth, etc.) who sees an opportunity to accomplish some goal through the threat of withdrawing government funds. The way the feds make transportation funds available to states and localities is the same thing. It's money these smaller governments have gotten used to and need to at least maintain a sense of status quo. In current case, few issues are likely to raise voices and elevate tempers than the chance someone's public education is threatened. Parents are doggedly reliable in this regard and will storm and protest and bitch when they hear their children aren't getting a proper learnin'.

Usually (and unfortunately), parents and the media equate the amount spent on an education with it's quality.

SEPTEMBER 23 IS NATIONAL OPT-OUT DAY

Organizers throughout the United States have designated September 23 as National Opt-Out Day. Parents, guardians, and students are encouraged to send letters to their respective school district offices and high schools denying permission for the military to access personal information through directory lists.

The letter should contain the name of the student, and state that no information should be released to the military according to federal provisions detailed in the No Child Left Behind Act.

Posted by drizzten at 06:15 PM | Permalink

Drug Trade Fueling Central Texas Burglary Spree

Authorities believe the drug trade is fueling a rash of burglaries throughout Central Texas.

Three suspects -- Constance Davis, Wendell Hankins and Jerry Hankins -- allegedly struck parts of Burnet, Llano, Williamson and Travis counties.

Authorities say the burglaries started in the spring in Burnet County and most of the victims were elderly.

Evidence gathered from the suspect's homes includes artwork, appliances, collector's items and electronics.

"It's real interesting what they took," said Chief Deputy Dan LeMay with the Burnet County Sheriff's Office. "I suspect most of what they took, they took either to sell or trade for drugs."

In Burnet County alone, authorities say the stolen items recovered so far total $10-20,000.

This investigation is also developing leads in robbery cases in Travis and Williamson counties.

© Copyright 2001-2003 WorldNow. All Rights Reserved

The Authorities? - They certainly have failed to do their jobs! I mean, just look at the rise in crime. Case closed! Cut their pay!
The Buglary Vicitims? - Pfft, if they knew the kind of social damage their negligence was causing, they'd be more careful in the future! Fine them and regulate how people defend their property!
The Pawnshops? An easy target because we all know that's mostly what these Businesses of Crime do: fence stolen goods for Evil Profit. I propose A Cop In Every Store!
The Addicts? Well, um...it's not like they have a choice, cuz their addicted...so we'll just tack on a few more days of jail time.

Or...The Drug Policy? The one that artificially rockets drug prices so high they attract the criminal element in society to make money off the black market created by the criminalization of the substances. I like this idea the best. Down with illegalization!

Posted by drizzten at 07:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's been one year and one day since I started.

No deep reflections. No insightful personal story. It's just cool I lasted this long and ended up posting an average of higher than once a day.

Onward to bigger and more important things!

Posted by drizzten at 06:36 AM | Permalink

[Updates below.]

My car is a 2002 Volkswagen Golf TDI. It's model year notwithstanding, it was purchased in August of 2001. That means the two-year inspection sticker that came with the car has expired. I haven't gotten it renewed yet. I am therefore in violation of Texas law.

CHAPTER 548. COMPULSORY INSPECTION OF VEHICLES

� 548.051. Vehicles and Equipment Subject to Inspection

(a) A motor vehicle, trailer, semitrailer, pole trailer, or mobile home, registered in this state, must have the following items inspected at an inspection station or by an inspector:

(1) tires;

(2) wheel assembly;

(3) safety guards or flaps, if required by Section 547.606;

(4) brake system, including power brake unit;

(5) steering system, including power steering;

(6) lighting equipment;

(7) horns and warning devices;

(8) mirrors;

(9) windshield wipers;

(10) sunscreening devices, unless the vehicle is exempt from sunscreen device restrictions under Section 547.613;

(11) front seat belts in vehicles on which seat belt anchorages were part of the manufacturer's original equipment;

(12) tax decal, if required by Section 548.104(d)(1);

(13) exhaust system;

(14) exhaust emission system;

(15) fuel tank cap, using pressurized testing equipment approved by department rule; and

(16) emissions control equipment as designated by department rule.

My tires are fine although they'll need replacing in about 3 months. My brakes are fine. So are my lighting, viewing, and windshield-wiping systems. The Golf came with a remote entry/locking system that honks the horn upon activation and I have had occasion in the recent past to lay upon the horn for lengthier periods; I know the honker works. Nothing is wrong with the steering system. All reflectors are clean and reflect fine. Mother's wouldn't tint my car beyond the 35% limit already allowed. Each one of my seatbelts is fully functional. The car is a diesel, so I have no idea how it "complies" with EPA regulations, not that I'd want to comply with them anyway.

In short, my car is road-worthy and safe and every single one of my friends can attest to that. I'm not a mechanic and I'm not a state-licensed inspector (so go right ahead and declare me unfit to determine the extent of my car's mechanical abilities)...but it's my car and my responsibility to decide if it's safe to drive. I am intelligent enough to understand it is in my best interests for the Golf to be safe. The fact that there are people who aren't intelligent enough (or who can't afford to maintain their vehicles regularly) doesn't require me to be put under the thumb of the government. I have done nothing wrong; nothing that could constitute a violation of anyone's life or property.

� 548.601. Offense Generally

(b) Unless otherwise specified in this chapter, an offense under this section is a Class C misdemeanor.

� 548.602. Failure to Display Inspection Certificate

(a) After the fifth day after the date of expiration of the period designated for inspection, a person may not operate:

(1) a motor vehicle registered in this state unless a current and appropriate inspection certificate is displayed on the vehicle; or

(2) a commercial motor vehicle registered in this state unless it is equipped as required by federal motor carrier safety regulations and displays an inspection certificate issued under the program established under Section 548.201.

(b) A peace officer who exhibits a badge or other sign of authority may stop a vehicle not displaying an inspection certificate on the windshield and require the owner or operator to produce an inspection certificate for the vehicle.

� 548.604. Penalty for Certain Violations

(a) A person commits an offense if the person operates or moves a motor vehicle, trailer, semitrailer, pole trailer, or mobile home, or a combination of those vehicles, that is:

(1) equipped in violation of this chapter or a rule adopted under this chapter; or

(2) in a mechanical condition that endangers a person, including the operator or an occupant, or property.

(b) An offense under this section is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed $200.

Am I a criminal? Technically, yes. Do I deserve that designation? Absolutely not.

� 548.603. Fictitious or Counterfeit Inspection Certificate or Insurance Document

(a) A person commits an offense if the person:

(2) transfers an inspection certificate from a windshield or location to another windshield or location;

(c) The owner of a vehicle commits an offense if the owner knowingly allows the vehicle to be registered or operated while the vehicle displays an inspection certificate in violation of Subsection (a).

(d) An offense under Subsection (a) or (c) is a Class B misdemeanor.

Will I get the Golf inspected? Somewhat complicating this decision is the fact that my father is a deputy sheriff in Comal County. We've already had the "get yer car inspected" talk last month. I'll probably do it this weekend.

But I wish I didn't have to.

UPDATE(7/20/2004 1:52pm)
Time to get registered.

UPDATE 1/28/2005 11:51am
Hypocrisy or Consistency?

Posted by drizzten at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

It is rare when you buy something that never disappoints you.

It's been so long I can't even remember when I first used it. I'm going to hazard a guess and say it was around the time I moved to Austin: June of 2001. That's probably when I bought it. In the 27 months since then, I have used it and it's contents at least six times a week, occasionally less. That comes to roughly 570 applications of product over it's lifetime. I have no idea who accurate that is; it certainly seems fewer than it should be.

I began to view the slowly eroding label as a sort of weathered and wisened face, following me as I walked through life.

Around the end of last year, I began to wonder if it would ever run out. It never seemed to get lighter, though it would be a lie if I said I weighed it to find out. It never hesitated to dispense the product promptly and without complication. It certainly never failed in it's intended purpose. I must say it has been one of the most reliable items I've ever owned. I absolutely will buy another one if I can find it on the market.

I long ago lost the cap, possibly on a trip to Canada, California, Dallas, or in between moves.

Yesterday morning, it finally gave up it's ghost and ran out. It was remarkable while it lasted, Edge Pro Gel with Aloe.

Posted by drizzten at 01:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Previously, I made a quick mention of the Texas "Democratic" Senator's desertion to New Mexico to deny the body a quorum in order to persue redistricting. Now, it seems the deadlock has been unlocked.

Whitmire leaves N.M.; 10 Democrats will stay

Ten Texas Senate Democrats will continue their stay in New Mexico.

On Wednesday, they spoke out about what they feel is the desertion of Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston.

The remaining senators spoke from Albuquerque. They said the had no idea Whitmire was returning to Texas on Tuesday. They said he no longer represents their interests and can not make deals in their names.

The senators lashed out against him in impassioned speeches.

The senators also say some of them will travel to Washington this evening to meet with members of the national press and presidential candidates.

Those not traveling to Washington will remain in New Mexico.

In Houston, Whitmire said congressional redistricting will have to be debated on the Texas Senate floor. Whitmire?s participation would give the Senate a quorum and let them conduct business with the Democrats who are in New Mexico.

[...]

Whitmire said the Democrats can't remain in New Mexico indefinitely.

As for redistricting, the so-called Non-Partisan Redistricting Proposal sounds like a perfectly fine idea to implement.

UPDATE(9/9/2003 10:25pm)
More here.

UPDATE(10/12/2003 9:34pm)
Big News: a plan has been finalized and passed by both the House and the Senate.

Posted by drizzten at 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Congress to honor Armstrong

Lance Armstrong will get another honor for his Tour de France prowess.

Congressman John Carter will present a resolution Wednesday afternoon honoring Armstrong for his fifth Tour de France win.

The House of Representatives returns to Capitol Hill Wednesday after a five-week summer break.

Posted by drizzten at 01:44 PM | Permalink

[Updates below.]

So I went to the September Business Meeting of the Travis County Libertarian Party, the first time I've ever made the effort to get this close to political activism. I made the decision to do this after finally choosing to act upon a message from the Austin Liberator e-mail list. The message promoted the next event in the Distinguished Speaker Series: Ed Clark from Austin Energy, who'll be speaking about deregulation, the California energy mess, the recent northeast blackout, and other things. After calling Rick McGinnis (a very friendly guy) to confirm a slot, I figured I should check out the TCLP and get a personal feel for the people there.

They usually meet at the Old Quarry Library on 7501 Village Center Drive off Far West Blvd from 6:45pm till 8. I screwed up and didn't find the place in time back last year when I resolved to check them out, but I got there early and made it fine tonight.

The atmosphere was relaxed and mostly productive. Patrick Dixon, the TCLP Chair, got things moving. Having the attitude I have towards formal organizations, it took me a bit to adjust to the format of the proceedings. Recognizings, reports, agendas, minutes, and all that. I apparently picked a good night to drop by, as several folks mentioned attendance was the highest they'd seen in some time.

Much of the meeting was devoted to the ways the TCLP and the Libertarian Party in general is trying to gain ground and membership. Every now and then the topic would get sidetracked by a quickie political debate on the nature of some specific issue, but for the most part, the discussion was straightforward party issues and needs. I get the sense that this problem of wishing to debate political issues interferes in grassroots organizing...I know it certain broke up the monotony of the structured format.

A nifty thing I wasn't prepared for was a report on an Environmental Impact study done by a volunteer (I forget his name) for the Austin area. According to his research ozone levels have been steadily declining since the 1970's in the Austin area. He didn't have enough time to really put together a full presentation, but he promised to upload a more complete report on a TCLP website in the upcoming weeks.

I was enlightened to the sobering reality of Texas ballot access, a process that requires parties that did not recieve 5% or more of the popular vote in the last general election to gather tens of thousands of qualified voter signatures in a mere 75 days. Ugly shite, that, and doubly hypocritical: it's a democratic process designed to supress the democratic process.

Also there was a rep from the national Libertarian Party on hand. I thought he was introduced as the "national chair" but Geoffrey J. Neale doesn't ring a bell. Hm. Anyway, it was an interesting enough meeting that I'll probably go the the next few and see what happens. Will I become a card-carrying member? I haven't decided.

The meetings end with a visit to a nearby Double Dave's, which I decided to join at the last minute. I wanted to get a better feel for the attitudes and leanings of the people there, which wasn't practical at the meeting proper. I ended up sitting with Dan Eisler and two other men and we chatted for some time. While it would be wrong to say I share all the views these people have, it was quite refreshing to be in the company of humans who agree on some fundamentals.

We'll see how it goes from here.

UPDATE(8:40am)
Stupid me. Forgot a few details. Out of the 25-35 who attended, there were only three or four women. I didn't ask why, nor did I go there to pick anyone up, but it did strike me as worthy of noting. The TCLP does have a "women of liberty" calendar as a fund raising item, but I didn't check it out.

UPDATE 9/24/2004 5:30pm
The Austin American-Statesman, Voting, Free Speech, and Information

Posted by drizzten at 12:08 AM | Permalink

Despite being offline for the better part of two weeks with nothing but a spattering of posts here and there, August was the best month I've had since I started bloggin September 4th, 2002. The overwhelming majority of visits are from Google searches for things like live action evangelion, flcl cartoon network, msra infection, definition of the american dream, VW recall, and Browning Hi Power.

I believe the 7-12 "regular" readers were mostly missing because of my absence. It's now my duty to rebuild that base...however, I'm changing my blog's focus.

To the extent that it even had one, it will now turn towards the political climate and events in Austin, TX, the state of Texas overall, and things our "representatives" both in and outside the state are doing to us and for us. The emphasis will be the impact political events will or may have on individual liberty and it's corollaries (free enterprise and markets, personal responsibility, and the persuit of happiness). I've been thinking about this for some time, but haven't built up the motivation to go through with it, mostly because I'm lazy and cherry-picking news items from around the country and globe may be good for quick outbursts and chuckles...however, they don't do much for me on a deeper level.

Besides, it would be nice to run across an Austin collectivist who searched for something of mine and felt the need to vent about it in my face.

I'd like to "connect" more with my readers like that. :)

Anyways, this is my full announcement that I'm back.

Posted by drizzten at 04:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Experience the weirdness of Google and the even-weirder things people search for.

I'm second on a listing of listing of results after searching for "carrying drugged bitches."

I have a very strong feeling whomever searched for those words didn't find what he or she was looking for on my site.

Posted by drizzten at 03:50 PM | Permalink