A Post-Election Bonus: Rumsfeld Leaving!

Heckuva job, Rummy!

What’s ironic is that after the attacks of September 11th, I actually sent him an email telling him how happy I was that he was SecDef during this troubled time. Boy how quickly my opinion changed.

Now the question is who will take his place?

[Update]: Bush is nominating former CIA chief Robert Gates. Looks like a winner to me.

I’m glad Bush waited until after the election to fire …er, accept the resignation of Rummy. I don’t think the Democratic victory would have been nearly as decisive if Bush had made the move a week or two ago.

New Jersey

I’m on the way to New Jersey for a day trip. And its Election Day, too. Fortunately I took an hour of my Sunday to vote ahead of time. No matter what time I return tomorrow evening, I plan to stay up late watching returns.

The country could look a lot different Wednesday morning.

Shutting The Borders – For Americans?!?

Slashdot (I know, not the most reliable source of news) spread the word yesterday that the Department of Homeland Security is proposing new rules requiring Americans to get permission before entering and leaving the country. A valid U.S. passport won’t be enough, even though it currently takes a U.S. court order to revoke a passport. Your name will have to be cleared by some bureaucrat before you’re allowed to leave or enter, no matter what your U.S. passport says about your right to be here.

Things have gotten scary here in the U.S.A., folks. Veterans’ Day is six days from now and serves as a reminder of the sacrifices I made and others made in service to our country. That same country I so proudly served is now disintegrating before my eyes. Freedom is an endangered species in America.

The second date looming in my mind is two days away: Election Day. If ever there was a chance to put a stop to this bullshit, Tuesday is the day. If things don’t change come Wednesday morning, we are all in deep trouble.

Read more at John Gillmore’s excellent site, Papers, Please. And DHS’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking here.

Yes, it really is as bad as it seems.

SkyScout: For Idiot Astronomers Like Me

Kelly and I are shopping around for potential Christmas presents. In the “wish I had enough money to buy it” category is the Celeston SkyScout Personal Planetarium. This is the Holy Grail of astronomy tools, in my book:

The SkyScout is a revolutionary handheld device that uses advanced GPS technology with point and click convenience to instantly identify thousands of stars, planets, constellations and more. Simply point the SkyScout at any star in the sky and click the “target” button–the SkyScout will instantly tell you what object you are looking at.

In other words, its like having an expert astronomer in a box. Imagine walking around with Carl Sagan in a box!

Eww. Nevermind. But, still! Being able to point this thing at a star and have it tell you what it is (“that’s the sun, you idiot”) would be out of this world! Dadgummit, what will they think of next?

The second question I had when I saw this was: can it do celestial navigation? All of our deep space spacecraft use the stars for navigation. Most of them have electronic brains that make the Commodore 64 seem advanced. If this thing can identify stars, celestial navigation can’t be far behind.

I Voted!

I spent about a hour standing in line today in order to vote. I found out yesterday that I’ll be needed in New Jersey on Tuesday but I didn’t want to miss my chance.

At the One-Stop Voting station on Litchford Road, a line of people stretched across the parking lot. An hour after first arriving, I walked out as voter number 2776. I was pleased to see a line just as long still stretching into the parking lot.

Please, no matter what side of the aisle you’re on, get out and vote. This is your country, after all.

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Piedmont Biofuels Brings Biodiesel To Raleigh

Looking to reduce the tons of carbon dioxide you put into the atmosphere every year? If you’re driving a diesel, you’re in luck! Piedmont Biofuels recently opened their first Raleigh refueling station, so now you can “gas” up on vegetable oil. Time to go shopping on Craigslist!

Here’s the text of their announcement on the Biofuels Interest Group mailing list:

Have you been banging down our doors?

Over the past year many folks have called and nagged and reminded and re-reminded us that the people of our fair state need a Raleigh option for getting biodiesel. We are happy to announce then that Piedmont Biofuels has now opened a B100 pump, our finest in fact, in the Raleigh area. The Raleigh pump is a card swipe system with unlimited user capacity, which tracks your fuel consumption over the month, and bills you at the end of the month. We even have a very fancy-shmancy graphical interface that allows us to visually see the Raleigh tank level from the safety of our control room in little Pittsboro. All this technology is fine and dandy, and we do love gadgets, but we also do this work in the great hope of getting our members that live or work in the Raleigh area to start using the new pump, and also to get the word out to Raleigh-based friends and relatives of our members. So please, if you know someone that needs to know that there is now a place to get B100 biodiesel in Raleigh, please pass the word along and have them give us a call.

Thoughts On Healthcare

I went to the pediatrician for my son’s two year checkup the other day. The doctor gave him a great report, which was no surprise. Originally he wasn’t due for any shots, but a new law went into effect requiring a hepatitis shot.

For good measure, the nurse asked about giving him and my daughter an influenza shot. I am a strong skeptic of the effectiveness of flu shots and have voiced these concerns to Kelly. The nurse brushed these concerns aside, repeating that they’re safe. I grudgingly went along. Both kids got a flu shot.

As I was leaving their office, it occured to me that if the pediatric office was really concerned about the spread of the flu, why don’t they clean the waiting room seats and toys after patients come in? While there’s a “sick” and “well” side to the room, the only toy table in the room is right in the middle. I recalled a news story a few years back that elderly patients were better off not coming in for a flu shot, as their chance of infection was greater from a visit to the waiting room than from picking it up from their everyday routines.

The pharmaceutical shill in the waiting room as I left (the second I’d seen that morning) reminded me that the healthcare industry is just that: an industry. Its primary goal is to make a profit, not to make people healthy. It’s a business first. Doctors would rather sell you a flu shot than disinfect their waiting rooms.

Early this year I attended the HIPAA trade show in San Diego’s cavernous convention center. The size of the show dwarfed anything I believe I’ve been to. Floor after floor and booth after booth of vendors selling to healthcare professionals. The amount money in healthcare is staggering. I imagined it was what a military arms show must be like, with huge companies hunting huge contracts. There’s good money to be made in both taking bodies apart and putting them back together.

What a waste of money and resources. Yeah, we’ve got some smart people working on lifesaving solutions, but only with an eye to the bottom line. Sure, foreign kings come to the U.S. for their treatment, but the reason they do is because they are the few who can afford to.

But … what if the focus was different? What if profit wasn’t the goal anymore? What if patients – not their wallets – came first? What if doctors were judged by how healthy their patients are – how many doctor’s visits were avoided – rather than how much money they made? What if everyone had access to top-notch, affordable healthcare? I think you’d see a fundamental shift in thinking.

I’m still marveling at last year’s visit to an Italian emergency-room with Travis. Not that it was a lot of fun hauling a six-month-old into the hospital while on vacation, but how helpful the staff was. How genuinely concerned they seemed with Travis’s health. Our son was not just a number, or a line on a profit-and-loss chart. He was a human who needed help. We walked out with a reassurance of our son’s health as well as a greater appreciation for socialized medicine.

Instead we have bloated, faceless, expensive healthcare in this country, where dollars flow faster than IVs and media breathlessly flogging the latest virus to be feared.

Perhaps one day we’ll get serious about reforming our healthcare in this country. As long as its driven by dollars our best interests won’t be served. What a shame.

Bush Has His Way With The National Guard

Guess what present our Dear Leader got two weeks ago! That’s right, easier power to declare martial law and seize control of National Guard troops over the objections of local and state authorities. Thus, one more important safeguard against abuse by the federal government goes by the wayside. So much for democracy and the rule of law. All hail The Decider, who is the Only One who can protect us from those evil terrists. Senator Patrick Leahy has summed up his objections to the bill. Read his protest for a good summary of how evil is truly done.

I suppose I should accept the fact that one day we will all be working for the Department of Defense. Or maybe we already are.

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.