I’ve got a metric assload of stuff to do today, and the phone started ringing a few minutes after seven. This is about all the typing you get, I think.
- Dark matter? Astronomers find star-less galaxy made up of dark matter, perhaps. It might explain a buncha things. [slashdot]
- Wanna know about some small town somewhere in the US? Check it out with ePodunk. It’s not perfect. It knows about some fairly small towns, but didn’t know of either Hasty or Silver Creek up near Monticello. Both are pretty tiny, but Silver Creek even has its own zip code. Oh well, it ain’t perfect, but it’s still pretty cool. [doc]
- I talked about H.R. 418, a couple days ago. “Real I.D.” for an all too real world has more on the bill, as does Claire, who says she may have to become an American Refusenik. Me, I’m pretty thoroughly stuck in the system, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
So what’s the real problem here? Something’s rotten in Congress when the FCC tries to mandate how your TV is built, or the Department of Homeland Security can break the law with no other part of government able to review their actions. Yeah, that’s a provision in H.R. 418, too.
But looking back at the history of the government taking away our rights, a big problem is Corporatism and Socialism in America. The two are related, and what the right-leaning party of big government wants is not Capitalism or a free-market, but rather Corporatism. And most “Progressives” end up wanting Federalism, in the tradition of Hamilton and Adams, who gave us the Alien and Sedition Acts. I’d much rather see a third choice that more closely matches Jeffersonian ideals of limited federal government. [claire] - Kim rants about how we Americans are Un-Lubricated, especially around the office. I had a “company handbook” put together recently, and it was like pulling teeth to get the lawyers to leave out things like
no booze on company premises
andno guns on company premises
. Hell, I encourage both, but I don’t have a typical business. [kim]