I've made a post over on ebenbrooksband renewing our call for a manager for the Band.

Details here.

Actor Edward Woodward has died. He was 79.

Though he's probably best known for his role in the TV show The Equalizer, my favorite roles of his were in The Wicker Man and Breaker Morant.

EDIT: Just saw this one. High fructose corn syrup increases risk of hypertension up to 87%. It's also been linked statistically to the increase in obesity in Americans over the last 100 years.

Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication is our first step towards Star Trek style replicators!

Artificial bones, such as those which comprise most of Miles Vorkosigan's skeleton, can now be easily manufactured by sintering metal powder with a laser.

Researchers build single-atom tip! Can a single-atom blade be far behind?

And I think this one takes the cake: Researchers successfully grow fully functional artificial rabbit penis using stem cells. I don't think I can add anything to that...

Well, actually, technically, it was the doc's nurse practitioner, but I still trust her judgment. According to her, H1N1 causes a sustained fever that lasts multiple days. My fever only lasted a day and a night, then it broke and it hasn't come back. So, in her professional opinion, all I have is the plain old seasonal flu. Yay!

I'm still snarfly and headachy and feeling generally zombie-like, and I'll be contagious until I'm asymptomatic (which could be another few days), but at least there's very little chance that I'll croak. (Well, figuratively croak. I'm actually doing quite a lot of literal croaking. :/ )

Because Matthew Shepard Can't, & I Can - THAT'S why.



Some highlights from the above post:

It's time once again to stop being complacent and start getting proactive.... ALL OF US have this responsibility, not just my GLBT brothers and sisters, but all of our straight friends and allies — if indeed you are our friends and allies. You can no longer stand idly by and watch as we suffer these indignations like it doesn't affect you, and if it doesn't affect you to watch those of us you call loved ones suffering the tyranny of second class citizenship, then we must force ourselves to question our loyalties to you. You cannot have it both ways because this is too important, and we can no longer afford to pretend that your silence isn't complacency.

It is WRONG to see an act of injustice and say nothing. It is WRONG to hear someone preach hateful speech about people you love and respect and say nothing. It is WRONG to maintain the status quo for the sake of comfort when it creates damage in the homes and lives of those you claim to love and respect. Moreover, it is WRONG to be silent amongst those perpetuating a wrong and not call out what you know is RIGHT. Silence is acceptance, and your silence is not good enough anymore. It never has been.

It is your turn to share this and spread these words so that others may do the same from your example. It's one small action, that is all I'm asking for right now. It is your turn to say something, what will YOU do?

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*EDIT: Oops, a friend pointed out to me that this isn't actually a very appropriate slogan, on account of the fact that a) the Spanish-American War was in part started because of American public furor, much of which may have been manufactured by the Hearst media empire; and b) the event that generated the slogan, and supposedly started the Spanish-American War, may have been done by our own side to create a pretext for going to war. While b) is somewhat dodgy, a) is certainly believable, and I don't want to taint the real struggle that the GLBT community is going through with the stain of a manufactured war.

Oddly enough, this one doesn't have anything to do with either the health care debate or ACORN. This is about the Internet. Specifically, it's about the contents of the Internet chapter of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, the text of which the Obama administration refused to disclose for "national security reasons".

Anyway, here's the letter:

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Dear Mr. President,

As blogged by Michael Geist here: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4510/125/, contents of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being negotiated in Seoul have been leaked. Specifically, the section on internet copyright enforcement, which says:

* That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material uploaded every second isn't infringing will exceed any hope of profitability.

* That ISPs have to cut off the Internet access of accused copyright infringers or face liability. This means that your entire family could be denied access to the internet -- and hence to civic participation, health information, education, communications, and their means of earning a living -- if one member is accused of copyright infringement, without access to a trial or counsel.

* That the whole world must adopt US-style "notice-and-takedown" rules that require ISPs to remove any material that is accused -- again, without evidence or trial -- of infringing copyright. This has proved a disaster in the US and other countries, where it provides an easy means of censoring material, just by accusing it of infringing copyright.

* Mandatory prohibitions on breaking DRM, even if doing so for a lawful purpose (e.g., to make a work available to disabled people; for archival preservation; because you own the copyrighted work that is locked up with DRM).

This is intolerable. If this 'treaty' were to go into effect, the Internet as we know it--the Internet that got you elected President!--would die. Not that I think this 'treaty' would last five minutes if anyone tried to enforce it, but the very idea that the United States would do something this backward-headed, this heavy-handed--this fascist!--makes me very angry.

I will be spreading the word about this as far and as widely as I can. Expect to receive a few hundred, maybe even a few thousand, e-mails about this.

Sincerely,
Eben Brooks
Working Class Superhero

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Yes, I took the middle four paragraphs from this article by Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing, but they summarized and criticized the treaty so well that I felt I could not improve on them.

Another article, this one by Michael Geist, goes into more detail and provides links to the treaty text.

So . . . if you're as pissed off about this as I am, please write a letter to the President denouncing this ridiculous, fascist treaty. Thank you.

This seems to be a flu of some sort. I hope it's a fast flu, because I can't afford to miss work. I haven't been there long enough to accrue any PTO.

I has dem.

I saw this over on the fireflyfans community, and I had to share. TOO CUTE!

Just wanted to say Happy Halloween to everyone, and to share my new user pic.

I'll probably use it for posts dealing with sleep deprivation or coffee withdrawal. ;-)

Because of a debate that a link I shared on Facebook the other day generated, I decided earlier today that I was going to write a post about how humans filter facts based on their previous beliefs (which has been scientifically proven, by the bye). However, when I went to write the post, I discovered that I really didn't feel like doing the research to find the links to the articles I'd read on the subject.

So, instead, I'll just say it: In a nutshell, everyone—and I mean everyone, friend and foe alike, myself most definitely included—filters facts based on previous belief. It takes serious conscious effort to avoid doing this, and the jury is out as to whether avoiding it is even possible.

(So when, in the comments of that link, the two Johns were quoting their facts at each other and discounting each other's evidence, we were seeing that very phenomenon in action, live and in vivid color.)

Knowing this makes it easier to accept the fact that I can't change some people's minds any more than they can change mine. It's also . . . not exactly 'comforting', but oddly comfortable knowing that there may not ever actually be an absolute "right" or "wrong" in this, or in any other, debate.

Um . . . I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed that the first question in today's Writer's Block asks the same thing twice. It's essentially asking "Does brain chemistry control moods, or does brain chemistry control moods?"

Either abelincoln1864 is screwing with us, or he was really tired when he wrote this.

The second question, however, is properly phrased . . . and the answer is "Yes."

I realized this morning that I haven't done any updating about my broken heel in a while.

So, in case you're interested, ( it's healing quite nicely. )

Since I made the LJ community ebenbrooksband for posts strictly to do with my and the band's music and performances, I feel I can unleash my political side a bit* more here in this journal. If you'd rather not read about the political stuff, feel free to de-friend this journal and join the ebenbrooksband community. I shan't be offended.

That having been said, ( on to the politics! )

EDIT: If you enjoyed reading this, please feel free to link to it or recommend it to your friends. The more people we have talking about this, the more likely we are to actually make something happen. Thank you.

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* for sufficiently gargantuan values of "a bit".

I've just made a post over on ebenbrooksband about a new song I'm writing.

Please join ebenbrooksband if you want to get news and other posts about music.

I has it.

I just read an article (this one) that has me discouraged, disheartened, and disgusted.

It appears that the Senate is going to pass the Max Baucus bill, contrary to what I've heard previously. For those of you who don't know, the Max Baucus bill doesn't have a public option provision, but does have a mandatory coverage provision.

It's the worst of both worlds. Yes, it addresses some of the things that need reforming, but it's essentially a huge 'status quo' bill, except that starting in 2013 people will be forced to buy health insurance or pay a ridiculous penalty.

It's ... too stupid for words. And I wish I could say I was surprised by it, but with as resounding a disappointment as the Obama presidency has been so far, I'm afraid I'm not surprised at all.

Damn you, Mister President, you were supposed to make things right! You were supposed to fix problems, not just perpetuate them under different names. You were supposed to usher the American health care system, finally, into the 20th Century, and maybe even into the 21st after a while.

Instead, you're a complete milquetoast. And why? Are you trying to get the other side to like you? Newsflash, Mister President: IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN! All you're doing is letting down your supporters, and in some cases even alienating them. You're not winning points from the GOP. They will continue to hate your guts simply because you're a Democrat in the White House, and there is not ONE GOD DAMNED THING you can do about it. So STOP TRYING, and instead DO some of the things you PROMISED to do.

Clinton knew these things. He fought for what he thought was right (and not without some boneheaded mistakes, certainly) knowing that the Right was going to lambaste him no matter what he did, so he just forged on. You seem to want to make everyone happy, and that's a surefire way to make NO ONE happy.

My tea ... is pink.

This is not some frou-frou herbal tisane made from raspberries or anything like that, this is supposedly Chinese black tea.

Chinese black tea ... well, black tea isn't black, but it's supposed to be brown. Or, after you add milk, tan.

But my tea is neither brown nor tan. No, after I added milk to my tea, it is now ... strawberry milkshake pink.

This is just wrong!

1. I support a public option in the health care reform bill. In fact, I personally think a public option doesn't go far enough, and we should have universal single-payer health care. But that's not going to happen, at least not right away. So, since a public option is the best we can hope for right now, it's what I'm supporting.


2. I oppose mandatory coverage. For something like automobile insurance, well, I don't like it, but I can always choose to not drive. I can't choose to not be a biological entity. Making people pay for health insurance or pay a tax penalty or a legal fine or even face criminal charges is WRONG. Absolutely, 100% wrong. Period.


3. The bill currently before Congress has both provisions. I have been lobbying my congressmonsters to move to strike the mandatory coverage provision out of the bill since I heard about it several months ago. If the bill that goes to the floor for a vote contains both a public option provision and a mandatory coverage provision, I will urge my congresscreatures to vote against it.

EDIT: removed a point that was unnecessary and uncharitable.

EDIT: Two things that many people in the world seem to forget. 1. All politicians who oppose government run health care actually HAVE government run health-care. 2. All politicians who oppose government run health care are taking HUGE amounts of money from insurance companies and pharmaceutical corporations.*

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* Before some of you get your panties in a bunch...this is not to say that no politicians who are for government run health care are refusing to take money from health insurance or pharmaceutical companies. But if you look at the numbers, the opponents are taking orders of magnitude more money from those sources than the proponents are.