The White “Ty” Affair

The Shawshank Redepmtion is one of the best movies ever made…  Therefore it deserves one of the best youtube parodies ever made.

While reading the directions for a mobile phone, I actually had to read the 2nd line twice, to be sure I wasn’t imagining what I had just read..

It’s a good thing too, because popping my phone in the microwave oven is the first thing I do on a cold morning.  Wouldn’t want to get my hands all cold and numb.

If you ever do any type of support for family/friends/clients/whatever, and you haven’t heard of TeamViewer yet, you should go check out my review.

Or just go download and try it for yourself at http://www.teamviewer.com/

TrueCrypt 6.1 was released on October 31.

The new version adds a few features people have been wanting for a long time.  Support for security tokens and smart card authentication, the ability to encrypt a non-system partiton in-place (non-destructively), a blank bootloader or custom message bootloader, and the usual bug fixes, etc.

Download it here.

I’ve always been proud to be an American, but it’s been a while since I’ve been proud of the American people.

Yesterday that changed.

If you had asked me a year or two ago if I thought I’d ever see a black man elected president in my lifetime, I would have said “I don’t think so”.  If you had asked me about a black man with a middle-eastern sounding name, I would have said “absolutely no way”, there’s too much racism, too many idiots that can’t get past skin color or names, or whatever other meaningless attributes a person has that are the only thing they see.

America (well, more than half of America anyway) proved me wrong, and I’m very proud to have been here to seen it happen.  I’m also deeply disappointed in California, as it looks like Proposition 8 is going to pass, that makes me sad, and tells me that this country still has a long way to go.

I’ve always understood that my presidential vote here in Utah is meaningless, but I don’t let that stop me from going through with it, and putting a lot of thought into it anyway.

In the end I voted for Obama.  It was down to a choice between supporting the Libertarian party that I so strongly associate with, but with a nominee this year that I just couldn’t bring myself to support, and a guy who is amazingly inspiring, obviously very intelligent, and who I think will make a very strong leader. I agree with a great many of his policies…  If it wasn’t for the big strike against him, the gun-control thing, It would have been a no-brainer.

Anyway, congratulations President-Elect Obama.

I’m so glad this thing is finally over with.

Now please don’t screw it up.

The most convincing political speech I’ve ever seen.  Well, now I know forsure who I’m *not* voting for anyway.

In some forum today I saw what I think is a very good quote regarding the election:

“And if I see a train wreck coming… I’m getting out of the way! Even if that means opting for a fender-bender over issues I have with the democrats. McCain and Palin MUST NOT win!”

The only problem I have with that idea is that the big issue I have with the Democrats is more than a fender-bender for me. There’s a reason the 2nd amendment is so close to the top of the list, because it’s dang near as important as the 1st.

I’m incredibly frustrated with the two-party dominant system that we have, and that the only realistically possible winners of the office we have are McCain, who we can pretty much agree now would be a 3rd Bush term, until he has a heart attack or stroke, and leaves us with someone who makes President Bush look incredibly intelligent taking over the Presidency. Against Obama, who comes across as a very good and competent leader, (and he can complete a sentence intelligently, that’s a nice bonus) who wants to change all the stuff the administration has broken over the last several years, but I’m scared that he’ll push to take away our right to defend ourselves. And if something were to happen to Obama, (A lot less likely, I admit, but there’s a lot of insane racists still in this country that would take a shot if they had it) then we’re left with Biden, who is, as someone else stated it, “one of the original architects on the war on drugs”… ugh.

So basically over the next 4, possibly 8 years, we’re going to have:

• Mccain (I mean Bush 2.0) Presidency, for possibly 8 more years.  Scary…
• Palin (I mean Bush 2.01) Presidency, with an even ditsier puppet (and religious nutcase) behind the desk.  Great…
• Obama, Possible good leader, if a bit overzealous, who still hasn’t convinced me that he can accomplish all these wondeful things he wants to do, but at least he wants to try.  Oh, and then there’s that pesky 2nd amendment that he doesn’t like so much.
• Biden, One of the original designers of one of the most failed programs, if not *the* most failed program the losers in our government have ever managed to implement.  Yay…

Wow…  it’s a great time to be an American Citizen…

At least I can feel better in the realization that due to the Electoral College, my vote doesn’t really matter one bit, no matter who I vote for. I’m in Utah, and I this state would vote overwhelmingly for the Republican ticket if Bin Laden himself were somehow able to run with the (R) next to his name.

Oh, how I long for the abolishment of the Electoral College and implementation of a system like Instant Runoff Voting.  Then people wouldn’t be afraid to vote for a better candidate and possibly spoil the election again.

So what to do??  If I was in a state that mattered, I’d have to actually think about it.  In Utah however, I have the luxury ???? though of being able to vote for a 3rd party candidate who agrees with me on most of the issues, and not worry about contributing to spoiling the election, “2000 Florida Style“.  The problem there is that I’m not even sure there’s any decent 3rd party candidates.  In the past I’ve usually voted Libertarian, but this year they put up Bob Barr, a guy who pushed *hard* for the epic failure “war on drugs”, but now says that he’s changed his mind.  He was very vocally opposed to abortion rights, except apparently when it involves him, and now says he has changed his mind.  He voted to attack Iraq, and has now changed his mind, voted for the Patriot Act !!!, but now says he has changed his mind.

Now I think it’s just fine to change your mind, especially in the direction he’s claims to be changing it, which almost makes him someone I could vote for based on political positions, but I question whether it’s sincere, or just because he basically has to say these things since he’s running for president on the Libertarian Party’s ticket.

Then there’s the Green party..  I’m all for saving the environment, but there’s much more important issues to be tackled at the moment.

The “Constitution Party”…  I just refreshed my memory on Wikipedia.  Umm…  thanks, but no thanks.

And the Independent Ralph Nader…  I think I’ll pass there.

On a side note, I noticed a quote from Ralph Nader on that previous link regarding if he thought he might throw the election for the Democrats again this year.

“Not a chance. If the Democrats can’t landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down, and emerge in a different form.”

So Nader and I Agree on something.  Too bad it’s not on an issue that matters, like nuclear energy.  (In all fairness we actually do agree on many issues, just not enough.)

So I’m back where I started..  Instead of voting for the lesser of two evils, I’m going to be voting for the lesser of 6 evils/crazies.  Now I just have to which of them that is.  At least 4 of them are making it easy to toss them out immediately.

I’m starting to think that I’m putting too much thought into something that I can’t affect… Maybe I should simply stay home and just watch the results come in on TV.

What might end up being the most entertaining train wreck television event this year airs tomorrow night.

Yes, I’m talking about the Vice Presidential debate…

vs.

This should be fun…

I wouldn’t normally comment on this guy, just to do my part in avoiding giving him any more publicity, but today is different.

Anti-Free Speech, Anti Video Game, general Loony-Toon, John Bruce “Jack” Thompson is finally being disbarred…  (yeah, they beat me to the “game over” line)…  and I’m using it anyway.

If, unlike me, you live in a state where your vote for president might actually matter (I’m looking at you, Colorado, Nevada, Virginia, Michigan….), or even one of the “leaning towards a candidate” states, and you’re not registered to vote, I’m on my knees, pleading.. please go register NOW!  It doesn’t take that long, to register, or to actually vote.  And it probably matters more now than ever.

And if you’re in a state that your vote for president doesn’t make a bit of difference, you still should consider it, your votes do still make a difference in local government, and bad local politicians can cause as many problems as a bad president can.  Also, if that isn’t enough to convince you, remember that most future candidates for the big jobs start out as local politicians…  if you don’t give a really bad apple a chance at the local level, he might not ever make it to the big time.

Most states require that you’re registered either 30, 28, or 15 days before the election, so now is the time.

http://www.rockthevote.com/

(Ok, if you don’t want to use rock the vote, go to your local DMV, or do a google search for registering to vote in your state.  I don’t care how you register, just as long as you do.)