The myth of the wage gap

Yes, on average, women make 75% of the salary of men but the real reason is not sexism.

If you care about the Internet...

If you care about the Internet, unrestricted speech and browsing, you will go to this site, read it and follow along, before it is too late...

Howard Dean, a laugh a minute...

I can not help but wonder if Howard Dean would have make this remark if it was more widely known that the target of his joke was a career Democratic civil servant. I’m thinking not. I also wonder if he would have said it if a Democrat was president. Again, I’m thinking not.

I am not commenting on the target of this joke. That individual is indefensible. I am just pointing out the obvious politicizing of an issue for pure, cheap partisan politics from someone whose primary job these past months consisted of repeatedly and angrily inserting his foot into his mouth. That the democrats elected and continue to support this man as the head of their party is truly sad.

You do your best, fight your hardest and push yourself the most when you are up against a worthy opponent. This holds true in politics as well in life. How can the Republican Party possibly stay in fighting trim with the current Democratic Party as their only opponent? No wonder the current congress is such a mess. No competition.

Update: 4/20/06:
I stand corrected, it would appear that Brian Doyle is not a career Democratic civil servant after all.

Just what the world needs, programmable soda...

From the "fact imitating fiction" department comes programmable soda.

Providing choice at the point of consumption creates tremendous advantages for the consumers as well as the manufacturer," noted Glenn Wachler, advisor to IPIFINI and co-inventor of IPIFINI's Choice-Enabled Packaging.

This actually sounds rather appealing. You pick your flavor after you buy your soda. You can have a case of every flavor. No more buying cola, orange and grape. Just buy "every flavor" and decide when it comes time to drink it. Will our grandchildren think that it was cute that we used to buy pre-determined soda?

The Plame Game

This posting covers two very important facts about this entire episode that I don't think gets nearly enough coverage.

The first is; as the President of the United States, GWB is the "owner" of all government information, classified or not and if he chooses to release some, so what? It is his to release.

The second is:

And I think the overwhelming evidence points to this being the major reason for the Plame Affair, this particular NIE leak, and other actions taken by the Administration to defend their good name.

Remember, Joe Wilson totally and completely LIED about why he went to Niger and what he found while there. He was NOT sent by the White House but by his WIFE, Valerie Plame and his report supported the White House's claims. Joe Wilson then writes an OpEd piece for the NYT that not only says he found no evidence (despite his report) but also says that he told the White House that there was nothing there and they ignored him.

Exactly what was the administration supposed to do? Allow this blatant lying to go on unopposed or try to set the record straight? Also, remember Valerie Plame was NOT undercover. She worked for the CIA but was NOT a field agent and was not protected by the laws relating to disclosure of agents and SHE recommended (dare we say pushed for) her husband to go on this trip.

This is clearly not rocket science. Plame recommends Wilson for a fact finding trip, not the White House. He finds evidence to support the administration's position and writes such in his report. He then write an OpEd piece blowing the whistle on his trip and reports the exact opposite of what he did find and lies about who sent him and why and then gets all self righteous when the White House tries to counter his lies.

If all of the rest of this shakes out as currently suspected, that the President actually authorized the disclosures, then I want to know why the heck didn't he just get on TV the day after the original story broke and say so? Call Wilson a back-stabbing, lying SOB and his wife too (cause they are) and tell the world that he authorized the release of that information to counter the Plame/Wilson lies? Would have saved a whole lot of in-between trouble if he had.

Update:
Here is how the filing (PDF) by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald describes what happened (page 23):

Defendant [Libby] testified that the Vice President later advised him that the President had authorized defendant to disclose the relevant portions of the NIE [National Intelligence Estimate]. Defendant testified that he also spoke to David Addington, then Counsel to the Vice President, whom defendant considered to be an expert in national security law, and Mr. Addington opined that Presidential authorization to publicly disclose a document amounted to a declassification of the document.

So as I opined above, the President releasing information in fact declassifies it and if that is the case how can it be a leak? Oh that's right, it is NOT a story unless you can slant it against the President, for a moment there I forgot...

Update: 9/7/06:
At least some are staring to get it.

I wonder if this music video will ever be on MTV...

A music video by The Right Brothers...


Somehow I doubt it.