yum!

NOW. This Week | PBS
I'm excited to see that the Yum! group quick-service restaurant chain Taco Bell has committed to increase wages for tomato pickers in Florida. For only a penny a pound more, these workers will enjoy a 75% pay increase. Taco Bell has now agreed to lead the way in fairly compensating and respecting the workers of its suppliers.

I will probably try to eat at Taco Bell more often. It's satisfying to think that I can support a corporation that is doing good in America.

Opponents On Different Wavelengths

Opponents On Different Wavelengths: "Another Republican, a House aide, ... who asked not to be identified because his boss is trying to avoid publicly criticizing public broadcasting, recounted traveling through the South recently and hearing 'six Christian radio stations and NPR. The contrast was obvious. There's a real cultural dissonance there.'"

What in the world? I'd be worried if NPR did sound like the other 6 Christian stations. NPR shouldn't be identifiably left or right in its overall programming mix. There certainly are commentators and hosts on NPR that lean to the left in their personal views, and some that lean to the right - and maybe, just maybe, the left-leaning ones do tend to be heard a bit more often. But NPR still does a much better job of identifying commentary and opinion as such than many others, and allowing all voices to speak, whether they be from a red state, a blue state, or a state of mind.

FWIW, it's not as if I think NPR shouldn't discuss Christianity, but it should cover it as one of many belief systems, not the only one out there.

godwin's law

The Comparison That Ends the Conversation

I have only one comment. When politicians start to sound like Usenet, we need new politicians. I don't have anything against Usenet, but its S/N ratio is not useful when attempting to govern a country.

proprietary ?

Rocky Mountain News: Technology: "It's just a proprietary decision by Apple to decide whether to play along or not..."

Hmm. Seems to me, that Sony BMG is the one who made the "proprietary decision" to go with a system (Windows Media DRM) that is not supported by the most popular portable audio player in the world - the iPod family, which also holds the largest share of the market. Maybe Sony should have licensed FairPlay DRM from Apple when Apple gave them the chance. Apple shouldn't have to lower themselves to accepting inferior formats (Windows Media) just because Sony thinks so. Let Sony make all of their digital audio players Windows Media DRM-compatible. I bet that most of Sony's aren't. In fact, Sony's equipment generally uses ATRAC3, so why didn't they use that format on the DMB release? It just doesn't make sense.

94% think bush lied

WagNews: 94% Think Bush Lied on Iraq -Online Poll

ain't that the truth

Two Top Guns Shoot Blanks - New York Times: "The boundary between reality and fiction has now been blurred to such an extent by show business, the news business and government alike that almost no shows produced by any of them are instantly accepted as truth."

sick & wrong

Your ISP as Net watchdog | CNET News.com: "'We were told, 'You're going to have to start thinking about data retention if you don't want people to think you're soft on child porn.''"

This is a clear violation of the American right to be held innocent until proven guilty. Let the government use the laws on the books today to request a 90 day hold of information about an Internet user if said user is suspect of a crime; that's fine. Ideally, I'd prefer a search warrant obtained from a federal court to be required. However, this new idea of calling ISPs who won't seriously invade users' privacy "soft on child porn" is yet another invention of those who hate freedom of expression and everything this country once stood for.

common sense prevails

My Way News | House Votes to Limit Use of Patriot Act: "If the government suspects someone is looking up how to make atom bombs, go to a court and get a search warrant," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.

hillary's got the right idea (!)

Buffalo News - No clear answer on who closed event to media Hillary Clinton: "... it's ... our Constitution and country at stake. Let's get some spine."

"9/11 as bush plot"

TV show depicts 9/11 as Bush plot - The Washington Times - June 09, 2005: " In fact, three of the hijackers who seized control of commercial airlines on September 11, 2001, including the ringleader, Mohamed Atta, purportedly had ties to a Hamburg, Germany-based al Qaeda cell."

Wait a minute. "In fact" does not equate to "purportedly". I wish the media wouldn't call something a "fact" when it only "purportedly" is the truth.

Interesting story nonetheless.

watch, ride & REPORT

At Articulatory Loop - Read, Repeat, Remember, a reminder of how "Homeland Security" has gone too far.

more threats to weather security

Santorum Bill would restrict Weather Service data
Rick Santorum's at it again: trying to protect a few jobs in his home state at the cost of many lives, much liberty, and lots of property. Blocking the National Weather Service from doing its job and forcing citizens to access taxpayer-funded weather information only through commercial providers.

politics X commerce = ew!

Air America | Rachel Maddow: "... California Governor ... has a political ad running now which features ... Product placement!"

I wish that consumer products wouldn't associate themselves with partisan political efforts such as this - would they want to take a risk that I'd be less likely to want to buy any of their brands? I'd have to think twice if I thought that buying a bottle of Arrowhead Water or a bag of Cheetos meant supporting a member of the Republican Party. A party that wants to take away a woman's right to make responsible healthcare choices, wants to "balance" PBS by adding enough conservative commentators to make FOX NEWS CHANNEL look like a Green Party convention, etc.

contradiction in terms

Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered | PBS: "Years ago ... Web site ... names were reserved for a private client. They were never hosted. Nothing was ever on them. And as we know on the Internet, things never disappear."

Okay - how can there be "things" that will "never disappear" if "nothing was ever on them" and they were "never hosted"? And, of course, these names are hosted, and continue to be hosted, to this day - whether by Gannon or not, but hosted, and with adult material that is X rated on the first page of at least one of them.

(Note that the above link contains a plain text mention of a URL that is definitely Not Safe For Work, Kids, or Families. The URL is not hyperlinked but is present nonetheless.)

windows security < mac security <> perfect

Security Awareness for Ma, Pa and the Corporate Clueless: Comments Received Offline - Published with Permission: "The lecturer asked how many of the 100 or so people in the audience were Mac users. Two of us meekly raised our hands. At that point, he told us to go and enjoy the buffet, pointing out to the other 98 that 'Mac security issues are so minimal, I don't want to waste their time.'
"

radio agony uncle ! ?

BBC | China's dangerous sexual ignorance: One couple thought that sleeping in the same bed together would result in pregnancy.

he's gone too far ...

U.S. Newswire : Releases : MoveOn PAC: "... Pat Robertson, a leader of the religious right, actually claimed that federal judges are a more serious threat to America than 'a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings'."

america deserves an explanation

The Downing Street Memo :: What is it?

"piece" treaty ^_^

The Northwest Herald - Online mentions that the makers of hot dogs and the bakers of buns have finally agreed to produce both items in packages of eight each.

save the republic !

At MoveOn PAC: Save the Republic, find a new ad encouraging the public to stop ultraconservative senator Bill Frist from using the "nuclear" option to prevent meaningful discussion and debate on judicial nominees in the Senate.