The Talking Head

Please review this Bill at OpenCongress.org.

The following letter was sent to Representatives Whitfield and Guthrie. I would urge you to do the same.

I am concerned after the recent review of HR 1444, particularly in the fact that it directly challenges the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

Section 4(b)5-6 both look to be infringing on the 13th Amendment.

Sec4(b)5:

The effect on the Nation, on those who serve, and on the families of those who serve, if all individuals in the United States were expected to perform national service or were REQUIRED to perform a certain amount of national service.

Sec4(b)6:

Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable MANDATORY service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.

Amendment XIII, Section 1:

Neither slavery nor INVOLUNTARY servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States,or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

This bill is an attack on our individual liberties and must be defeated. There can be no consolation in wording this bill differently. The sponsors have shown their true intent by supporting the current verbiage. Please ensure that this bill is not only defeated, but deliver the message that we the people will not allow our liberties to be tread on. Thank you for your service to this great nation.

World War Z - Max Brooks - 05/10/09
Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life - Neil Strauss - 05/14/09
Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse - James Wesley Rawles - 05/30/09

Over the last few nights I have been getting everything ready for fishing this summer. I straightened my fly-line, checked all of my flies, re-spooled the backing and re-knotted the backing, fly line, and leader. I picked up a new battery and box for the trolling motor at Rural King. Last night I finished it all off by getting the boat mounted to the Jeep. It is going to be a good summer.

I received my AR-15 kit from M&A today. I placed the order on March 19th and got the kit on April 4th. Not bad post-election turnaround if you ask me. The kit is top notch. I am getting a punch set tomorrow and will complete the build on top of a Charles Daly Defense stripped lower.

03/04/09 - Watchmen - Alan Moore
03/17/09 - Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Frank Miller
03/19/09 - All New Square Foot Gardening - Mel Bartholomew
03/30/09 - I Am Legend - Richard Matheson

02/09/09 - Alas, Babylon - Pat Frank
02/10/09 - The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, Book 1) - Steven King
02/17/09 - The Road - Cormac McCarthy
02/20/09 - The Foxfire Book - Eliot Wigginton

I don't know what to say about this. It isn't fair, but this guy made up part of your 54%. I am sure he isn't alone.

Here is a closer look at Julio. Better than getting a PS3 for Christmas.

I also liked the following comment from AoSHQ. I think this should be attached as the official transcript for this question and answer session.

Man this is the shit that you came all down here and shit. So, YAAAAAAAH!

Yeah, man, that's just awesome, so yo! You need to make somebody give me more benefits!

Cuz I need benefits and I been here for like four years and they won't give me more benefits.

So, yeah... Benefits. When you gonna make 'em give me more of those?

You know, like free Cheetos and handjobs, I don't know... shit. Benefits!

And the school should be givin' me more benefits too. What's up with that?

They got this whole big ass building with computers and shit, so I know they could?

But they ain't doing it, so what say you and me go down there and you can be like, "Hey, you know I'm the president now, right? So why don't you hook a brother up here, yo?"

And I'll just be standing there nodding and pointing to you, cuz you're so money and shit.

Like they've got these little carts that drive around campus that say "maintenance" and shit on em. I could use one of those to get around, cuz I slammed my Tercel last summer before I enrolled and then I hit this curb thing on campus and broke an axle and fucked up all my ground effects and shit.

So, come on, you could hook that up, right?

And what else.

Oh! you know, I need some other place to crash cuz my Mom's always knocking on my door saying she smells pot, which is just bullshit cuz I've got a whole system set up so it all goes out the window.

So why don't the school like have free dorms and shit? I mean, people gotta live soemplace, right? That's what I'm talking about, man. I need benefits like THAT.

And shit.

Last week I purchased a 'new' Jeep. The 1974 CJ5 has a 304 V8 as its powerhouse, and a 3 speed T-15 transmission. The plan is to get it in proper running condition, which isn't going to take more than changing the fluids and bleeding the brakes, and then decide what the future holds for it.

After locating a nice fiberglass canoe, I will once again be a denizen of Peabody.

Last weekend I installed Subsonic on my Gentoo box with the intention of being able to stream my music library at home to my machine at work. I have to admit that I am a little sad that I didn't come across this application earlier. Not only does it work out of the box, but I have been thoroughly impressed with the usability of it over my DSL's paltry 384K upload.

The prompting factor in this was the headache that I was encountering trying to keep 40GB of music synced between my home system and my work laptop. Using SolarWinds' Orion at work, I was able to tell that the stream was negligible on our network.

If anyone is looking for a solution to stream their music library over the LAN or the internet, I would highly suggest this piece of software.

This morning I stumbled upon this story of a student at UMass who is not succumbing to the collegiate norms. In a nutshell, Brian Marquis is bringing forth litigation against eight academic professionals because he believes his earned grade, an A-, was instead changed to a C based the results of a grading curve in one of his classes.

After reading the article, I felt that disgusting twist in my stomach that always resonates when speaking of the real world applications of college. Normally this is reserved for the professors whose beliefs deviate from the norm and their only way of being heard is to scream louder than anyone else in the room. Metaphorically speaking, I am referring to Ward Churchill.

Back to the story at hand, I feel that there is a growing discontent with rules of college compared to the rules of the real world. There is no reason that this man should be restrained from an earned grade because the TA thought his grade looked unfair in comparison to the rest in the class. This is absurd.

Another thing that bothers me here is the lack of forward thinking on the University's part when Mr. Marquis initially brought the issue to their attention. With an ounce of critical thinking they should have deduced that the TA had incorrectly graded the student, and this could have been resolved without incident. Instead, they chose to alienate a student and attempt to intimidate him into submission, some may be able to construe from the written responses to his initial pleas.

The bottom line here is that the collegiate systems need a wake up call to inform them that they are providing a service and that students are going to hold them accountable just like what happens in the real world.