Defending Democracy With Tyranny

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Is there hope for our country? For our democracy? For our freedom and civil liberties? I become more concerned about these issues daily, as the Bush administration does its best to destroy the foundations of our civilization and ruin any and all of our credibility throughout the world.

I am guessing I’ll be writing about these subjects often through the remaining 29 months of Bush’s reign of terror over the U.S., but what has me riled up today is the idea of using torture in the process of "defending freedom." I refer to the secret detainment facilities we operate somewhere in eastern Europe, as well as the torture in Guantanamo Bay and Abu-Gharib, and who knows where else.

Like Snakes on An Astral Plane, Man

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Top five favorite bands: The Who, Love & Rockets, The Church, David Bowie, The Beatles (not necessarily in that order at any given time).

With that as a background, Darla and I went to see The Church (their MySpace site has more information and is more up to date) last night in San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. It was a great show. Absolutely fantastic. Steven Kilbey’s voice is as captivating, smooth, silky, and enrapturing (is that a word?) as ever — even if he does look more like Lemmy these days than the charismatic and removed figure of his youth — and the band’s chops have only increased with time.

Pride & Prejudice

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How is it that the lameness quotient of my fellow Americans seems to be ever-increasing? A couple of weeks ago, Darla and I were bowling with some friends (power outage, no AC, it was hot, etc.), and we noticed that the majority of our fellow bowlers were using bumpers.

Bumpers.

And almost all of these folks were adults. Worse yet, they would celebrate when they hit a few pens, even after bouncing the ball off the damned bumpers.

Washington Court Says Legislature Can Discriminate

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Let’s start this post out with a quick question: Are you against gay marriage? If you are, but you limit your "against" to disapproval, or even blanket condemnation, I’ll fight and die for your right to have those opinions, no matter how strongly I disagree (or agree) with them.

If, however, you want to legally ban gay marriage based on your own backwards religious beliefs, I posit that you’re an un-American ignoramus whose values threaten the very fabric of the United States of America. If you are of that persuasion, however, you can at least be confident that you are surrounded by million of other idiots who don’t understand what freedom means or what what civil liberties are.

Clerks II

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Quick note about a movie: Clerks II was pretty darned good. Darla had me watch the first one shortly before we left (didn’t much care for it, though I respect Kevin Smith’s accomplishment in making it for US$27,000). Second one was far more funny, and of course its budget was a tad larger. Roasario Dawson was terrific and fit right into the juvenile humor that is a hallmark of Jay and Silent Bob films. It’s not for everyone, far from it, but this uptight, doesn’t-like-potty-humor moviegoer enjoyed it (despite the potty humor).

It’s Hot

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It’s hot. It’s not Texas hot. Texas hot sucks. But Bay Area hot is almost as bad because so few folks have AC. I don’t have AC. That makes the hot suck. Clearly, BTW, going from unseasonably cool weather to unseasonably blazing-hell hot is proof that our environment is not changing.

Or something.

I got WTFPWNed today playing poker. Gotta love those days, especially when it’s hot. Still it’s been a good month, and life is generally grand. That I have so little to complain about that whining about the heat is top priority is indicative that things are good.

The Poker Players Alliance

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I joined the Poker Players Alliance today. This is a lobbying group looking to protect our rights as poker players, and to promote poker as a game of skill that should be regulated and taxed, not banned. The PPA has the support of a number of big name players, including Howard Lederer, Jesus Ferguson, Linda Johnson, Greg Raymer, and a host of others.

Join the organization today if you want to see this sport continue to grow and thrive, and to combat the forces of big government and the religious right that want take away Internet poker.

Apple’s Knockout Quarter

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Zoinks! Apple turned in stellar quarterly results Wednesday, reporting its second highest revenue and earnings, which is not bad considering it’s the June quarter we’re talking about. The company sold a boat load of iPods (8.1 million), a lot of Macs (1.3 million), and the company’s higher education sales were through the roof (up 31% year over year).

There was a bit of angst heading into the quarter over iPod sales, and I think it safe to say that Apple surprised everyone. Certainly extended hours saw Apple trading higher by some 11.5% (at $58.83, up 6.07) when last I checked.

All that said, the biggest surprise to me was the fact that Peter Oppenheimer and COO Tim Cook were both a lot more open in a couple of situations where the company has historically been tighter than a drum head.

More Stupidity from the Religious Right

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The Bush administration has stupefyingly arrested David Carruthers, the British subject who is CEO of BetOnSports.com, a British-based publicly traded online casino. The charges are racketeering, conspiracy and fraud related to doing business with U.S.-based customers. Perhaps it’s a thank you to British Prime Minister Tony Blair for sticking by the U.S. in its disastrous execution of the "War on Terror."

Poker Politics & “Conservatives”

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By way of introduction to my brand spanking new (8-month old) blog, I will blast some chuckleheads who fancy themselves “conservatives.”

This past weekend, I interviewed with Ricky Spero for The Context Machine portion the TMO Weekly Round up (iTunes Link).

The Weekly Roundup is a weekly podcast recapping the week’s Apple and related-tech news. It’s great for you folks looking to catch up on everything in one great-sounding podcast. The Context Machine (a name I LOVE) is an analysis segment where Ricky brings on TMO editors to dissect the news, to give it more context, and to offer our opinions on what it means.

This particular show, we talked most about the recent house bill that attempts to stop online poker, while protecting online horse betting and online lotteries. In addition to this bill being hypocritical, pointless, and un-American, it’s real intent is not to stop online gambling (never mind that poker is a game of skill), but rather to be a handy wedge issue for the upcoming midterm elections in the States. It’s pandering to the fundamentalist Christians who don’t get that they’re merely the other side of the Taliban coin.