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musings of mark since 2001

Well, looks like the country to the south is soon to be a Theocracy after the Constitution Restoration Act of 2004 bill in September went to Subcommittee Hearings. The bill in summary:

“Amends the Federal judicial code to prohibit the U.S. Supreme Court and the Federal district courts from exercising jurisdiction over any matter in which relief is sought against an element of Federal, State, or local government or officer of such government by reason of that element’s or officer’s acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government.”

That means that when George Bush says “god told me to go after Saddam and al-Qaeda” he can’t be prosecuted for war crimes because god told him to do it. The bill further keeps all the neocons from international prosecution by disregarding anything silly like the Geneva conventions or even using a ruling from another state, say like California:

“Prohibits a court of the United States from relying upon any law, policy, or other action of a foreign state or international organization in interpreting and applying the Constitution, other than the constitutional law and English common law.”

And just to make sure that no judge will challenge it, they’ve put in a provision to ham him/her removed from the bench if they do:

“Provides that any Supreme Court justice or Federal court judge who exceeds the jurisdictional limitations of this Act shall be deemed to have committed an offence for which the justice or judge may be removed, and to have violated the standard of good behaviour required of Article III judges by the Constitution.”

Well, at least that one hasn’t passed yet. Of as much or more concern in the immediate future is the passing of Patriot Act II, which makes me a criminal simply by gathering NEWS about ANYTHING the US government thinks may be related to terrorist activity. We’ve already seen reporters thrown in jail for refusing to reveal their sources in the Valerie Plame case and ihnnnocent people are being held and drugged for psychiatric evaluation when clearly there is no case to stand on. Oh, and about that draft that isn’t going to happen , well, it will happen as the pieces are in place and the govt. isn’t about to turn back. Wait for another terrorist event and cries that more troops are needed to fight “the enemy” and the volunteer army isn’t working anymore. And if you don’t like what the govt. is doing to you, then a killing faked as a suicide (multiple gunshot wounds to the head by someone killing themselves? – I think not) is always in order or even an assasination.

It appears that Microsoft is trying to find illegal copies of any of it’s operating systems, as going to download the latest media player from them requires you to confirm your OS is not a copy. Nothing about getting a free copy if you turn in your dealer and you’re running anything but WinXP, they are serious about not supporting older operating systems, too bad. Getting used to Linux anyways, doesn’t take Microsoft to be able to email and use the internet. Of course, no one at M$ is saying much about their own use of illegal software in the WinXP operating system

Finally heard from The Flying Dutchman, he’s doing okay in San Jose being really active in a Model RC Aircraft club. Built a few planes myself long ago, never got them in the air very much though. The sail plane survived a few more crashes than the two gas powered ones I built, lack of any pilot training with the R/C controls definitely the main contributor to their short lifespan.

Another election for Bowen over, with the candidate having the most time on his hands achieving his immediate goal of becoming a Municipal Councilor winning quite handily. Think Richard will probably have another go at it in a year when the general election rolls around. Enough politics, don’t want to get in to a rant about the latest degradation of the principles the elephant to the south of us is perpetrating.

Sounds like brother David and mate might make it up to the Great White North for a little Xmas cheer.

Got some response from the dmxzone.com as well, turns out my contact is in flux at the moment but I’m still considered hot type, they really do like my stuff and actually thinking of me doing a couple articles instead of one from the first 3 or 4 paragraphs of the first submission I sent to them. Nice gentle reminder too that I’m more of a geek than I think I am at times, almost too cutting edge for the audience and the best part of all, they want padding with code examples, talk about easy content fill for someone like me, nice

Haven’t heard from you in a while, from my brothers that means everything’s going okay, except for Richard, he just plain never writes. Another birthday for you at the beginning of this month and here we are in December already and another year about to end, time flies when you’re havin’ fun eh?

Life rolls along up here too, the maintenance job at the Marina is three months old now and I got a call from the old print shop to come back and work for them. Tempting, three days there is the same $ as two weeks Mon-Fri at the Marina, but there’s a ferry ride involved too eh – so if I can talk them into say… mon, tues, wed then four days off that’s still doubling my income. Not that it’s a lot to double my income in the first place but 3 days on then four days off…. hmm…

Got a little dingus on my head/nose last week; fell off the dock into the water and a steel rolling staircase like the type you find in a warehouse came down with me. Luckily, I was wearing my Mustang© floater coat and didn’t drown in the cold water, big ol gash on the upper bridge of my nose though, down to the cartilage a chunk the size of a thumbnail. Prolly could smooth it over with plastic surgery and Workmen’s Comp. would have paid for it but I still feel that any time you don’t have to visit a hospital is another time that you won’t be the one to get something extra that you didn’t go there for in the first place.

Worth a few days off with pay anyways, good timing as had a few web site updates to do for clients lined up so a productive time off regardless and paid twice to boot.

How’s the ring tone thingee going for you? Are they going to let you get away for a day or two around xmas or the New Year? Wondering what Richard is doing too, if he’s got Paul and they are a bachelor xmas this year, or just what the heck is going on if you know what I mean.