October 2006

There were 44 posts published in October 2006 (this is page 1 of 5).

Judge Lets Bully Cops Off The Hook

One of the reasons I’m voting for Donnie Harrison to remain Wake County Sheriff is because he doesn’t mess around. When three undercover deputies were arrested for beating a guy who parked in two parking spaces, Harrison fired them immediately. Our law enforcement officers have a very tough and often unrewarding job, but going ballistic on citizens should never be tolerated.

Contrast this to the episode which occured in the Wake County courthouse. Two off-duty Durham police officers were charged with kicking a restaurant worker in the head outside of Blinco’s sports bar on Glenwood Avenue. Did the dirty cops get convicted? No. They walked when their case was dismissed. The prosecutor “failed to prove the bar is in Wake County,” if you can believe it. Judge Debra Sasser helpfully forgot how to use a map, too, and thus justice was not served.

With Durham’s reputation for police corruption I wouldn’t be so surprised if it happened there, but Wake County? Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that the prosecution and the judge got just what they wanted: that two dirty cops walked? Or is it just that the prosecutor is that big of a bonehead? Both sure as hell weren’t trying too hard.

I support law enforcement, but only clean law enforcement. If you go out drinking with your cop buddies and then beat the shit out of someone when they call you out for driving recklessly, you deserve to face the music for your dumbshit ways. Instead, the state and county look the other way. Shame, shame.

Cops have a tough job to do. The vast majority of them are good and deserve our respect. on the other hand, when the bad ones get a slap on the wrist – or worse, no slap at all – you can kiss goodbye any illusions of a “justice” system.

Waterboarding

Want to see waterboarding in action? Current TV producer Kaj Larsen, a veteran who has experience being waterboarded as part of military survival training, shows how its done on YouTube.

Larson’s tormenter explains at the start how the typical victim breaks within two minutes. Larson’s been waterboarded before. He knows how it feels, he knows he’s being filmed, and he knows he won’t drown. None of this helps him. Larson still breaks after 24 minutes. And he says its just as horrible the second time as it was the first.

Does this make you proud to be an American?

Are Elephants Self-Aware?

I find this fascinating.

Elephants Recognize Own Image In Mirror:

Elephants can recognize themselves in a mirror and use their reflections to explore hidden parts of their bodies, a measure of subjective self-awareness that until now has been shown definitively only in humans and apes, researchers reported Monday. The findings confirm a long-standing suspicion among scientists that elephants, with their big brains, complex societies and reputation for helping ill herdmates, have a sufficiently developed sense of identity to pass the challenging “mirror self-recognition test.”
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Oracle and Linux

Oracle’s announcement Wednesday that they are getting into the Linux business doesn’t impress me much. While Red Hat’s stock tanked on the news, the only people selling are those that don’t understand the Linux market. Red Hat has been involved with Linux from the very start. It has at least a decade’s head start on Oracle, something Oracle will have a tough time overcoming, no matter how much money they burn trying.

Sure, Oracle has enormous resources that Red Hat and others vendors like Novell don’t. The open source community, however, values things differently. A brand name or the size of the company may impress the so-called market analysts and the press, but it doesn’t impress the typical open source user. What impresses open source users is geek credibility. Compared to Red Hat, Oracle is a n00b. Red Hat is the Long-Haired Hacker. Oracle is The Suit.

Huge differences exist in the corporate philosophies of the two companies. Red Hat, for instance, releases most or all of its products as open source. Oracle, on the other hand, embraces the proprietary model. Open source does not come naturally to Oracle. In fact, I forsee Oracle having a tough time adapting to these new business rules.

This announcement sounds to me like it was done as revenge, perhaps for a spurned deal or takeover offer, or some kind of spat with Red Hat support. I don’t see Oracle as really being serious about Linux. Expect to see Oracle make a few halfhearted efforts at this before going shopping for an established Linux vendor to buy.

Battle Flag

Battle Flag
Pigeonhead
(Lo-Fidelity Allstars remix)

Your construction
Smells of corruption
I manipulate to recreate
This air to ground saga
Gotta launder my karma
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Machinehead

Machinehead
Bush

Breathe in breathe out
Tied to a wheel fingers got to feel
I spin on a whim I slide to the right
I felt you like electric light
For our love
For our fear
For our rise against the years and years and years
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A Carbon Dioxide-Making Machine

In my global warming kick, I was amazed to discover that for each gallon of gasoline my car burns, it produces 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. Thus, my commute produces 280 pounds of CO2 every week. That’s 14,000 pounds a year: over 6 metric tons! Put another way, my car produces its own weight in carbon dioxide every three months!

There’s something to think about the next time you’re stuck in rush hour traffic.