My suggestion for Iran's disenfranchised voters.

No re-vote?

YES, REVOLT!

Conservative hyperbole

• "It suggests that we have somebody who’s quite out of sync with the right approach to the law in this area." - Roger Clegg, Center for Equal Opportunity (conservative think tank)
  
• "This case will only raise more questions in the minds of the American people concerning Judge Sotomayor's commitment to treat each individual fairly and not as a member of a group." - Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican Senator
  
• Sotomayor "may have allowed her personal or political agenda to cloud her judgment and affect her ruling." - Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican Senator and Senate Minority Leader
  

Once again, the Conservatives enjoy hyperbole. It's a 5-4 ruling; hardly a rebuke of Sotomayor's appellate court GROUP decision. It's surprising that the US hasn't already collapsed under the weight of terrorism, illegal immigration, and liberalism, if the Conservatives are to be believed about how wrong liberals are. LOL!

Recount in Iran?

So it goes without saying, what's the point of a recount in the Iranian Presidential election, if the ballots were stuffed with forged votes? It would be confirming that the illegal election was illegal, don't you think? If we go back to Florida's recount in 2000, we learned that a manual recount by visual inspection took a lot longer than 8 hours of one day.

I'm not sure how these folks in Iran expect the world to trust them at this point. All we're getting is propaganda from Iran's rulers. Their political structure is most certainly on the verge of collapse. If they were smart, they would have caved in and done a re-vote. But instead of a re-vote, they got a revolt.

The difference between a dangerous Conservative and a hawt one.

Michelle Malkin wrote a book, "In Defense of Internment", which outlines her belief that not only was the internment of people like my cousin fair, but that my cousin's efforts to speak out against the internment of Japanese Americans is compromising the security of America. Forget for a moment that she is Conservative; her rhetoric is absolutely dangerous, and quite frankly, she is an idiot. In fact, the media purposely preys on Malkin, just because she IS an idiot.

Then there's Monica Crowley. I barely agree with her commentary on the McLaughlin Group, but she's just so hawt, and non-offensive as a Conservative commentator. Most of the time she disagrees vehemently with Eleanor Clift, but generally she does so on basic Conservative dogma much as Pat Buchanan does. When she disagrees with Buchanan, it's because she's politically blinded, unable to get beyond politics. BUT, it must be said that unlike other firebrand conservatives, she does not go down the path of lunacy and dangerous rhetoric of that of Michelle Malkin. If I were to ever meet Monica and she was interested in me, I'd chase her in a heartbeat...who cares about her politics. She's not a dangerous firebrand, after all.

Now I know, many Conservatives think that Ann Coulter is hot...but I have bad news for them; she's just another blowhard idiot. Most of the stuff that she states as fact, are actually lies, and she cannot stand up to the light of critical review by Harry Smith in an interview on the Early Show. No way does Ann Coulter compare to Monica Crowley.

The post-death popularity of Michael Jackson, King of Pop

On Amazon, his albums and those of the Jackson 5, make up 19 of the top 25 albums in sales for today and yesterday, and DVDs related to Michael Jackson make up 10 of the top 25 DVDs sold.

In my opinion, Thriller was the best album ever made, period. Of course, I own that album. It's sad that he died so young; at least his music will live on forever.

I want this to be played at my wake.

September

Do you remember the 21st night of September?
Love was changing the mind of pretenders
While chasing the clouds away

Our hearts were ringing
In the key that our souls were singing.
As we danced in the night,
Remember - how the stars stole the night away, yeah yeah yeah.

Hey hey hey,
Ba de ya - say do you remember
Ba de ya - dancing in September
Ba de ya - never was a cloudy day

Ba duda, ba duda, ba duda, badu
Ba duda, badu, ba duda, badu
Ba duda, badu, ba duda

My thoughts are with you
Holding hands with your heart to see you
Only blue talk and love,
Remember - how we knew love was here to stay

Now December found the love that we shared in September.
Only blue talk and love,
Remember - the true love we share today

Hey hey hey
Ba de ya - say do you remember
Ba de ya - dancing in September
Ba de ya - never was a cloudy day.......there was a
Ba de ya - say do you remember
Ba de ya - dancing in September
Ba de ya - golden dreams were shiny days

Now our bell was ringing, aha
Our souls were singing.
Do you remember every cloudy day - yau !

There was a
Ba de ya - say do you remember
Ba de ya - dancing in September
Ba de ya - never was a cloudy day.......there was a
Ba de ya - say do you remember
Ba de ya - dancing in September
Ba de ya - golden dreams were shiny days

Ba de ya de ya de ya
Ba de ya de ya de ya
Ba de ya de ya de ya - De ya

Obama...smart President.

Walked tonight at sunset, and took this photo on the waterfront near the Alber Mills building.

Just finished the ABC/Nightline special of President Obama's town-hall style Q and A at the White House, and it was just amazing. If you're going to go head to head, you have to realize that nearly every question you're about to throw at him, he's already thought about it and has an answer. This is no George Bush, President Obama is at ease, can deftly answer pointed questions without raising his tone.

I think the GOP should be shaking in their shoes, to see just how easy Obama is at talking to people about his plan, and answering critical questions off the cuff. Charlie Gibson frequently interrupted the President, but Obama never lost his cool. Wow...you don't ever see celebrities take such abuse, politicians no less.

The tipping point?

Neda's death in Iran may be the tipping point in both Iran's politics and the Middle-East. The Ayatollah's remarks that seemingly gave the militia the right to kill people, may about to backfire. The Ayatollah's lack of a voice in recognizing an innocent woman's death may trigger a paradigm shift of the role of religion, and how it is used to protect killers (not just in Iran, and not just in 2009).

I am reminded of the killer of the abortion doctor in Kansas. Not only did the killer choose to kill in the Lord's house, but he used religion to defend his actions.

We do not blame God, we blame humans that misuse religion to their conceit.

What next?

Green protest (protest of silence)
Originally uploaded by A1one

This is bigger than student protests at Tiananmen Square, 20 years ago. This is much like the protests in Poland, just before momentous change and the end of Communism in Poland.

In all honesty, I think political events in America triggered the right mechanisms abroad to move forward. Just as Reagan's pronouncement to Gorbachev to tear down the wall separating East and West Germany led to the crumbling of Communism and the eventual change in Poland, so has Obama's election changed the world. This is a LOT better than US leading with a sword.

The Crazy Dog.

Video from this past Sunday...compiled. Crazy, crazy fast and neurotic dog.

Audio is from DJ Greg J's mix, "Shook One" from his album, "Jet Set".
If you're a fan of DJ Greg J, you can download his mixes at his MySpace and his website. I'm currently listening to this one.

3D Google Warehouse...now embedded.

Awesome stuff, man.

Was Mir-Hossein Mousavi robbed of a win?

There is one simple, quick way to verify: have international monitors from the UN audit JUST the hometown of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Azeri. According to official release from Iran, Ahmadinejad won by a large majority in Azeri, which most people find highly unlikely.

Just one town, and baby, we can tell if the fix was in.

And for the record, Mir-Hossein Mousavi ranks high in my heart...he's an architect.

Which is cuter?

A pangolin

Or a hedgehog?

I know, what's a pangolin? It's a type of anteater with scales. They sure are cute when they're young.

Up at 3:15 am.

Was thinking about last Friday...went out with Ariel to Sauvie's Island to hang at the beach. Water was cold, but the sun was out and it was downright warm. Sand was hot; so hot it was difficult to walk on, barefoot. The sky turned slightly cloudy after a short time, and that brought a really nice relief. Ariel's dog is just a 7 month old puppy, and he's rather rambunctious. Ariel had difficulty controlling Renzo, so I kinda took him under my wing and got him to settle down on my lap and sleep under my towel for a bit. Fair warning, a day pass to park on Sauvie is $3.50. Grab an ice cream bar at the little store right off the ramp when you drive there, and pick up your pass at the same time! It used to be, that you could go to Joe's Sports and buy a year pass, but seeing as Joe's is going out of biz, that's not workable, eh? If I remember correctly, the year pass is somewhat bogus, because it's an annual pass for each year, no rolling clock. If you buy an annual pass for 2009 in December, you're screwed because it's only usable until through Dec.

Anyway, I probably shouldn't have taken that nap between 8 and 10 tonight...I meant to go to sleep and wake up earlier than my seemingly usual routine between 11 am and 1 pm. I thought I'd be more productive if I got out of bed in the early morning and ran around like a regular workday.

Have been working on several light shade ideas to get produced via Ponoko's services. The process is a bit slow - working in sketchup and then exporting to render in kerkeythea. It took me some time to realize it, but I finally figured out the correct settings to render with good quality and much faster times. It's become apparent to me, that my design skills and ideas are proportionately scaled to the experiences I have gone through, and all the things I absorb eventually find their way into my subconscious decision-making on aesthetics. As a result, I figure I can only get better as I dip my toes into designing all sorts of things from graphics to furniture, etc.

3D printing for the masses?

Makerbot produces a 3D printer DIY build kit for $750 or a completely built unit for $2500. Max operational size is 100mm x 100mm x 100mm, or 4 inches cubed. The models use ABS plastic, and deposit them layer by layer. The quality isn't perfect and needs refinement, but it's open source and meant for people to hack around and tweak it.

Let's just hope the robots don't figure this stuff out and start replicating themselves.

-via engadget

White supremacist drove a Hyundai?!?!

I caught this image from CBS News' report on television on the Holocaust Museum's shooting incident. Apparently this 88 year old white supremacist drove a 2001 Hyundai Accent. No need for additional commentary, I think it speaks for itself.

Conservatives want GM to fail?

"...individual Americans have a role to play. They have to say no to GM products and services until such time as the denationalization occurs." - Hugh Hewitt

Even Rush Limbaugh has noted that, "The people saying they don't want to buy anything at General Motors are not mad at General Motors. They don't want to patronize Obama. They don't want to do anything to make Obama's policies work!"

Hugh Hewitt is calling for GM's failure while Rush Limbaugh understands why people want GM to fail. It really makes you wonder, why Conservatives are so demonstrably politically-driven to wish ill upon America? Surely they know, that if GM failed after bankruptcy, that it would drive a $33 billion+ hole into the federal debt that was a legacy of George Bush's initiation? If GM fails going forward, all Americans will suffer from the fully realized loss of jobs, and all that money that was loaned.

Really, Hugh Hewitt, you want Americans to suffer more, just for the sake of politics? Conservatives are un-American.

(Links to Hugh Hewitt's comments here, to Rush Limbaugh's comments here. Thanks to Autoblog via TPM via theDetroitBureau.)

McDonald's rip off.

I went to McDonald's the other night, and bought two items from the dollar menu and one from the value menu: cheeseburger, small french fries and a small diet coke. The cheeseburger was listed on the DOLLAR MENU for a dollar. They informed me it was NOT A DOLLAR, but $1.09.

Okay, that might be overblowing it a little, but if the cheeseburger isn't A DOLLAR, why was it on the DOLLAR MENU? Google "DOLLAR MENU", and you'll find their website advertises items that aren't on the so-called DOLLAR MENU at the store.

I think they're a bunch of stinkers, nickel and diming you.

eMusic's bad mojo

Bad mojo from LA Times blog.
No love from Business Week.
Nothing positive from PC World.
Even the Register is paying attention from across the Atlantic.
Just all hate at Techdirt.
Pocket Lint took note.

I have decided that once I've gotten through my downloads for June, I'm signing up for a 60 day hold on my account, then come back in August to grab the free booster pack and see if they've relented. If not, then I'm canceling my account for good and going straight to streaming. I've already got 3G streaming internet radio from my phone and at home; I figure no way is it going to be worth my money to stick with eMusic. - Sorry, I got rid of the eMusic widget from the side; I couldn't support them anymore.

Tired of the Pre, and it's not even out.

So I thought I'd borrow from Psalms...

According to the Book of Pre:

"The Pre is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
Pre maketh me to lie down in green pastures,
Pre leadeth me beside the still waters.
Touchstone restoreth my Pre,
Pre shall leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for Palm's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of iPhone,
I will fear no evil, for iTunes art with me;
Thy touchstone and thy WebOS, they comfort me.
Palm preparest a table before me in the presence of Android;
Pre annointest my head with Sprint; My minutes runneth over."

eMusic and gay marriage.

eMusic announced changes, whereby they are including Sony titles, but are also boosting prices while decreasing downloads for your current subscription. For some people, the changes will effectively mean that they will be paying 78% more per download. For me, I'm getting an effective 35% increase in price per download, which I'm none too happy about. It might be just the right time to dump eMusic.


I saw that New Hampshire just made gay marriage legal, and it struck me that tolerance is a greater part of the upper Northeast US and Midwest, than it is out West, where not a single state supports gay marriage. Gay unions are difficult enough to come by in the West, as well. I had always thought that live-and-let-die was a western theme, but apparently I'm completely wrong. Shouldn't people just let others live they way they want to live, so long as they're not criminals (in the most basic definition). So long as you're not a molester, rapist, murderer, thief or a profiter from lies, shouldn't you be allowed to live how you want to live?

Second Gen xB still best in sales of all Scion models.

Despite some criticism in the media and from 1st gen xB owners, the second gen xB continues to outpace the other two models. Of course, that might all change when the iQ model goes on sale.

Model	05/09	05/08	%chg	2009ytd	2008ytd	%chg
SCION xB	2,216	5,351	-57.0	9,697	21,241	-53.6
SCION tC	1,814	5,166	-63.5	7,329	19,575	-62.0
SCION xD	1,065	4,337	-74.5	4,795	13,153	-63.0