Don't Back Down

Let me get this straight. We finally get Iraq to the point where they hold elections. Now, some people (admittedly, a journalist, but it wouldn't surprise me if politicians felt the same) think that the person they are likely to elect is a bad choice? That's it. Give them the opportunity to pick their leader. They do, decide they picked the wrong one. Give me a break. And people wonder why I think we might not have the best argument for being involved in Iraq.

Speaking of the middle east... The big D (that's Dubya, not Dallas) has decided that invading Iran is a bad idea. I don't really have anything to say about this. I just wanted to record it, so that in a few months or so, if he should change his mind, I'll be able to come back and find it easily.

There actually was an interesting idea proposed recently for dealing with the mess of Social Security. It seems that Paul O'Neill (the treasury guy, not the Yankee) thinks the government ought to just give every person $2K per year for their own account. I actually like that someone proposed a new idea. But the numbers in the end won't be any better than the current plan, and the money still has to come from somewhere. That's what I don't get. Do people just not understand that whatever the government gives away, they have to get from somewhere first? And that that somewhere is their very own pocket? I'd prefer to just keep my pocket lined, thank you very much.

I don't listen to much radio. Sure, if I'm in the car I'll flip on (or flip off) Bob and Tom. Once in a while I'll even turn on the radio on the way home to catch some updated scores from a game. But I simply cannot imagine listening to an entire sporting event on the radio. It just doesn't fit with the way I process information.

So I'm amazed when I find out that satellite radio company Sirius pays (or will pay, perhaps) the NFL hundreds of millions of dollars for broadcast rights to the games. I can almost - almost - understand the packages on satellite TV for all the games. But radio? Are people going to fire up their radio to listen to a game, every week? Much less a bunch of games? I don't get it.

Read "Satellite Radio Programming" »

Apparently the Dead Sea Scrolls will be coming to Charlotte for a visit next year. That might be cool. I saw the Declaration of Independence when it was here a while back, and that was neat. Not sure about the scrolls. I mean really - my Hebrew is a bit rusty, so it's just going to be a bunch of old parchment that I can't read. It might be someone's grandmother's recipe book. And at the other show, you waited in line for a while and were able to spend all of three seconds in front of the case. Still, it might be worth checking out. I'll post more info as it becomes available.

I've made some changes to MT-Moderate. The most significant change is that I've added the moderation of trackbacks to the plugin. A replacement for the Movable Type list_ping.tmpl is included to enhance this process, and the ping notifications have been updated as well.

Read "MT-Moderate 1.0.0" »

The Problem: Some people want to see a female president, implying that we just ought to put one there, without, say, a vote on the subject. As if it's time for quotas in government. Can't we get over that hump already?

My Proposal: You want a woman in office, get the support of a political party, major or minor, foot the bill, run the race, and get the votes. Though I don't necessarily agree with the current political system in our country, I at least recognize that it's better than the alternative - namely being stuck with whatever trend du jour happens to strike everyone's fancy.

Read "Why Is It So Hard?" »

AirTran is coming to Charlotte. Another low-fare carrier attempting to make a go of it in our fair city. Cool. So why is it that USAirways is so stupid about it? AirTran is starting service in May. USAirways is matching fares. In May.

Read "USAirways and Low Fares" »

From Rod, a note about the optoutprescreen.com service offered by the credit bureaus. For what it's worth, the site doesn't seem to work if you click a link. Just type it in your address bar and you should be good to go.

So is it real? I dunno. It seems pretty legit, but I looked briefly through the sites of a couple of credit bureaus and they didn't mention it. I called the Credit Reporting Industry Opt Out Hotline (888-5-OPT-OUT), and their recorded message tells you about the page. That's promising.

I also found this thread, which contains the detail from someone who dug a bit deeper than I, and that information seems to indicate that the site is legit. I've also seen reports that you can leave out your social, and it doesn't appear to be required, but I'm wondering how well they would match up your records if you don't include it.

Even though I built an automatic function into MT-Approval (to handle the updating of Context.pm), I wasn't happy with the way it worked. For starters, I hate changing the actual code of Movable Type. The reason for this is mostly because if that code is upgraded to a new version, the install often has to be repeated. I know of at least one MT-Approval user who ran into this problem.

So after thinking on it for a while, I've come up with a way around this problem. Instead of using the installation routine in MT-Approval, you can now use a global filter on the MTCommentFields tag itself.

Read "MT-Approval 1.1.0" »

Up until recently, I've been using screenit to get the scoop on movies, so that I have at least a reasonable idea if it's a good idea for the kids to see it, without having to actually sit through it myself. And for an in-depth review that you don't mind digging to find, I'd still recommend the service.

But for a more generalized service that can be used quickly and easily (and without a whole bunch of effort), I've instead taken to using Current Attractions, which not only loads faster, but is a whole lot easier on the eyes.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not a big proponent of flash, and I truly believe that Content is King®. Just look around. Even if my content isn't particularly good, it should be obvious that I'm not fancy by any stretch of the imagination.

But in this case, a little glitz is good. I find that the site is much easier to use than screenit, and the information given is a great overview, giving a quick look at a summary of the content in a given movie, and then you can view the details if interested.

I won't get into anything really deep here. Just a thought that came to mind. I regularly - or as regularly as possible - attend the Baptist Men's breakfast at our church. Typically held once a month, I've made it to probably 5 of the 7 or so held since we joined our church, and I always enjoy the experience. For a long time I didn't especially enjoy this sort of thing, and I still don't like it enough to do it daily - but once a month is great. In fact, I enjoy it so much that I have recently joined a smaller group of men who meet (sort of) once a week for breakfast, and that's nice as well.

So the idea of the fellowship, and specifically the thoughts and prayers and feelings that come out of the meeting, is, well, awesome. I really do enjoy it. So I can see the sense in making this happen with more regularity. I can extend the vision and see that everyone should enjoy it. Not just men, not just women, but everyone. The simple fellowship and camaraderie that comes out is well worth the effort. Seeing someone doing this on a grand scale is comforting.

What I don't get is the cost. $22? I'm sure the music and the message are great. I'm sure the food is good. But come on now. Our monthly men's breakfasts are $3 each (if you have it to donate). Typically I spend maybe $5 when we go out each week. And I understand that this event is yearly, so perhaps $22 isn't that bad in comparison. But still - if I'm paying $22 for something, it's more of an event. That is to say, a spectator event. A sport if you will. I understand that pro sports will cost far more than that, but the principle is the same.

I think it's safe to say that, tradition or not, quality or not, I won't be attending.

As I mentioned a while back, I am in the process of switching cell carriers. The interesting thing is that, despite repeated letters, notices and even commercials, I've seen no change whatsoever. Perhaps I'll make it all the way to my one-year anniversary date prior to having to actually use a Suncom plan.

Read "More from Suncom Wireless" »

So I'm just not quite sure what to do about trackback spam. I get far more spam than I get legitmate trackbacks. Even though I installed a filter (of sorts), and even though the filter is working, I still get trackback spam.

Read "Trackback Spam" »