Archive for March, 2008

2008.03.12

Spoiled Kids

There’s something very weird about living in an affluent society… Kids are too often raised to expect they will get whatever they want. This gives them a sense of entitlement and the kids take things for granted. Frankly, most kids I know (and this is just my perspective) seem spoiled and selfish.

Which is why seeing this video was so heartening. This boy is utterly the opposite of everything I described above. “You mean it’s mine? To keep? Forever?” And when he tries to give his parents some money I, a grown man, had a tear in my eye. Absolutely awesome.

2008.03.09

College Republicans Fight to be Uncivil

…free speech does not mean free rein.In an ironic triumph for First Amendment protections, college Republicans at San Francisco State University have won the right to be uncivil. Yep, they’ve won the right to hurl insults at others, stomp on other ethnic group’s symbolic flags of identity, and attempt to incite angry -and possibly violent- reactions from the crowd.

To the relief of a campus Republican group, the 417,000 students at California State University’s 23 institutions no longer face the possibility of discipline for failing to be civil to one another.

The change was part of a settlement approved by a federal magistrate in Oakland this week in a lawsuit by the San Francisco State College Republicans, whose members were subjected to a disciplinary hearing after some of them stomped on two flags bearing the name of Allah during an anti-terrorism rally in October 2006.

The flags represented the militant organizations Hamas and Hezbollah and had “Allah” written on them in Arabic. A student later complained that the College Republicans had engaged in “actions of incivility” and had tried to incite violence and create a hostile environment.

Hurray for College Republicans standing up for all of our rights to free speech! The National Socialist Party of America couldn’t be more proud of them.

In another irony, SFSU president Robert A. Corrigan wrote in 2004 after the incidents that led to the court case that

Taunts, attempts to incite each other to anger and remarks drawing on the worst stereotypes and global fears violate the values of this campus. … Further, exchanging charges of “racism” and “anti-Semitism” with others because of their political affiliation rather than dealing with the substance of the political differences is a dishonest dead end. … On this campus, free speech does not mean free rein.

(Emphasis mine. Two sentences removed for brevity; read the whole letter here)

Apparently and sadly, you are wrong Mr. Corrigan! While I do agree with you, college Republicans have won the right to be uncivil with everyone else. I can’t wait for them to start whining that others are being mean to them. Now that would be ironic!

2008.03.06

Reforming Business Patents

I’m all for copyrights and patents… as long as they are fair. Both have been abused to the point of needing serious reform. I’ve been ranting about the need for reform for a long time now. Our Founding Fathers thought both were extremely important and build them into our Consitution.

The Congress shall have Power To… promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

Now comes news that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will hear a case that could over turn patents for methodology. This is one of those things that allows me to get a patent for tying my shoes (so long as I can show I have a new method of tying them). Interestingly, I didn’t know this form of patent was relatively new (just under 10 years old).

I still think Congress is the one that will have to do the long term reformation of our patent and copyright laws, but we’re a long ways away so long as the “people” with money (corporations, businesses, lobbying and industry groups, etc) keep buying the various members of Congress to vote their way. Still, in the meantime this is some of the best news I’ve read in a while on this issue. Even better will be when they kill this methodology patent.

2008.03.05

I Want to See The Fall

The Fall is a movie by Tarsem Singh who brought us the visually stunning but kinda slow paced The Cell. This new movie looks stunning, with comic book archetypes, crazy stylized action and a potentially awesome story of redemption. It has been showing around the world already and will come to America sometime this month. Check out the trailer; awesome, neh?

2008.03.04

Motorcycle Galactica

As a recent motorcycle rider, an avid fan of Battlestar Galactica and a copious wine drinker, you can imagine how excited I was to see that Tricia Helfer and Katee Sackhoff (Number Six and Starbuck, respectively) recently rode motorcycles around the Solvang wine country! There’s an interview with Katee where she talks about getting her license and a Harley (shame she didn’t get a Triumph!).

I’m always impressed that famous (to me, at least) people do many of the same things I do. I’m itching to head up to Sonoma again, one of the finest wine regions in California. Motorcycle road trip!

2008.03.03

Tired, Sore and Satisfied

Doug in Tahoe, 2008I’m back from Tahoe. Three days of boarding, one at Sierra at Tahoe and two at the California side of Heavenly. By the end of Sunday, before we left Tahoe, my thighs would burn at the end of each run. It sounds disgusting, but it felt like I pissed down my leg it was so hot!

Every day was great, though Saturday was irritating because they closed the Nevada side of Heavenly and many of the lifts on the California side. This created huge lines, and one of the best runs, Sky Express, was closed. All was remedied on Sunday with Sky Express opened and much shorter lines. If only there wasn’t gale force winds, the day would have been perfect.

My favorite stories from the slopes, probably because I’m involved, involves Mookee. I’m going downhill probably too fast and my friend Redge was ahead of me. Unexpectedly he changed direction and I cut fast to get around him, and then tried cutting back to get back on course. I went one direction but my feet didn’t and in a cloud of snow I went down. It didn’t hurt but it was a little embarrassing with Mookee pointing at me and laughing. To my chagrin, Redge stopped to see if I was OK and hit me with a spray of snow. I thought Mookee would have an aneurism he was laughing so hard. Which is what made events five minutes later so satisfying.

I was following Mookee at a distance when I saw him go over one of the occasionally unexpected bumps on the slope that are far bigger than they look. One of his skis went to one side and the other ski went the opposite direction and suddenly he was down in an explosion of powder, tumbling, sliding way down the hill. I swooped past him laughing and yelling, “How does it feel? How does it feel, Big Boy?” He wasn’t hurt at all, but the wipeout looked so bad that two members of the ski patrol came to make sure.

The lesson: I will always have my revenge. The awesome: both wipeouts were caught on video camera! Alas, I stopped recording a few seconds before Banana Boy bounced down the slopes himself.

Of course this was a group affair and 14 of us were in two condo/cabin/unit things and we drank, ate and made merry every night. I made Meat Purse again (this year’s addition was bread crumbs) and some of my Japanese female companions made curry. I’ll eventually post a gallery of pics and Mookee has threatened to make a video of the weekend from footage and stills. After all of this I’m glad I took today (Monday) off so I could recuperate somewhat. I am tired and sore, but so satisfied. I’ve needed an escape for weeks now.