Opaque Lucidity

Flashback

Sometimes, I watch TV and something I see there will bring me back to something from the past. It happened again tonight, and HARD. I was 25 again, just for a minute. Part of me is glad I am not there anymore, and part of me misses those days like crazy, and for all the wrong reasons.

So What Brings You To Our Planet?

So I set up a free account for myself in Second Life. For those of you who have a busy First Life, Second Life is a virtual world that allows you to build a house, fly a plane, etc. in a large world created for that purpose. You are represented by an avatar that you can customize in thousands of ways; I tried to make mine actually look like me, but I think that puts me in the minority. Most of the people I’ve seen online (I haven’t talked to anyone) are thin and beautiful. That may be representative of the people who play this life simulation, but I seriously doubt it.

I’ve only spent about 15 minutes in Second Life, mainly due to the fact that the podcast takes up about 2 hours a night and leaves me very little free time. This is a good thing, for I’ve found in the past with other online games that if I have time to play, that time will slowly expand and begin to intrude on other, more important, parts of my life. To own land and build anything, you must upgrade your account to one which costs $9.95 a month. While I would love to build a dream house just so other people could see it, ten bucks a month for a few minutes a night just isn’t my cup of tea.

The actual “game play” in Second Life isn’t actually game play at all. Basically, you are left to your own devices, just as in the real world. People get together to have meetings, watch movies, have intimate relationships and sell stuff. There are no goals or levels other than those you set for yourself. If you choose, you can be like me: a homeless slacker who flies from one island to another admiring the scenery while contributing nothing to the virtual economy.

I think I’ve talked about this before, but it’s worth mentioning again. How far are we from the day when people will voluntarily live their entire lives in a virtual world, ala The Matrix? Some games/simulation are so immersive that while you wouldn’t confuse it with the real world, you could certainly work full-time there. You still have to eat and attend to bodily functions, but how many people are already spending all their time playing World of Warcraft? It is possible to make real money in that game by producing virtual weapons, armor, etc and selling it on eBay.

I can picture a future where, for better or worse, people are warehoused in small spaces that only give the barest minimum of necessities such as a kitchenette and bathroom. These pods (or whatever they’ll be called) will have super-fast internet connections and little else in the way of communication. You may look at this scenario and wonder about how families and relationships will exist. The truth is that there will always be people who will want to live in reality and those who will prefer a world in which they can be someone else and do things they could never do “out here”.

Snow In The White House

Tony Snow will be the new White House Press Secretary. Snow is the former host of Fox News Sunday and currently has a talk radio show on the Fox Radio Network. One would assume that he will be giving up that position because, as we've seen, the Press Secretary position is a full time job and then some.

I think it will be interesting to see Snow in action. He is easily the best prepared person to ever hold the job in terms of facing tough questions and arrogant liberals. But answering questions from behind a podium in the White House is not the same as a fight on the radio with a caller. He is not there to give his opinion, but to pass on the official position/spin of the Administration, something that is incredibly difficult to do right now.

That difficulty has made me think about why a man like Tony Snow would take such a hard job at the peak of his career. He dealt with a bout of colon cancer last year, so it's possible that has changed his perspective on life and such. But more than that (and I hope this is true), maybe Tony Snow is serving because the President needs him.

If a President (not just G.W., but any President) called and asked me to take a position in his Administration, I would go. If the Navy called tomorrow and said they needed me again, I would go. It's not that I'm some sort of Christ-like man of sacrifice; I just figure that it they're calling me, the situation is desperate. Maybe Tony Snow sees the White House in the same light right now.

Untouched

April 26th (Wednesday) will mark the 20th anniversary of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. I was a freshman in high school then and I remember my Spanish teacher (who had escaped from Cuba with her family soon after Castro came to power) telling us how the Soviets were just too damn stupid to handle nuclear power. Now that we know more about what actually happened, it's pretty clear that many things contributed to the accident: training, operations, design. Needless to say, the accident helped drive a nail in the coffin of nuclear power in the United States, a power source we need now more than ever.

I was reading an article in the Financial Times about the anniversary and one of the paragraphs struck me:

The explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in 1986 was yet another catastrophe from which Ukraine had to bounce back in the last century. The country lost 10m in the second world war and 7m in a famine in the 1930s.

17 million people in a generation. We Americans tend to think of our loses in World War Two with sadness and horror---400,000 people did not come home from Europe and the Pacific. I do not mention this to trivialize their deaths, but to make a point that loss of the caliber suffered by the Ukrainians changes the way a society views itself and events.

Imagine a nuclear accident in the US of the magnitude of Chernobyl. It could very possibly cause an economic collapse (remember what happened after 9/11) or worse. But the Ukrainians plod along, just as their Russian and Chinese neighbors have. It does not make them better or tougher than us, just different. It also makes me thankful that we have not had to become desensitized to that kind of death.

I am reminded of a statement made by Joseph Stalin, the man who was responsible for the deaths of the more than 30 million Soviet citizens (those of you who ignorantly spout off about more people being killed over religion than anything else in history need to look at the Soviets and Chinese in the 20th century):

"One death is tragic; a million deaths is a statistic."

And The Band Plays On

I know many people who have lost all faith in our political process. To them, all politicians are crooks who use their parties' positions to further their own agendas, guarantee re-election or just become rich. While I know that type of politico certainly exists, there is a part of me that wants to believe there are good, honest and just men of both major parties (and in other parties as well) who support the things they do because they believe in them. I HAVE to believe this because, otherwise, I would become one of those sad souls who doesn't pay attention to anything going on in the world because he reasons that he can't do anything about it anyway.

But when I read about things such as this, I really want to take my ball and go home. The first Digital Millennium Copyright Act is garbage legislation that opened to door for any media company to essentially destroy the idea of fair use. Now, this White House is trying to get legislation passed that will actually strengthen the DMCA. It isn't some far-out right- or left-wing Congressman/Senator (such as Orrin Hatch of Utah) writing this legislation, but the President's people! From the article:

The draft legislation, created by the Bush administration and backed by Rep. Lamar Smith, already enjoys the support of large copyright holders such as the Recording Industry Association of America. Smith is the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees intellectual-property law.

"The bill as a whole does a lot of good things," said Keith Kupferschmid, vice president for intellectual property and enforcement at the Software and Information Industry Association in Washington, D.C. "It gives the (Justice Department) the ability to do things to combat IP crime that they now can't presently do."

What things? Is there some criminal element out there stealing music and movies that the Justice Department can't go after because of the laws already on the books? Well, it would seem that there are more sinister forces at work:

During a speech in November, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales endorsed the idea and said at the time that he would send Congress draft legislation. Such changes are necessary because new technology is "encouraging large-scale criminal enterprises to get involved in intellectual-property theft," Gonzales said, adding that proceeds from the illicit businesses are used, "quite frankly, to fund terrorism activities."

Really? Terrorists? Yes, yes, I know: it is possible that sales of illegal DVDs and CDs in third-world countries are helping to fund terrorist activities. The problem with a statement such as this is that the broadening of this act has absolutely nothing to do with homeland security and everything to do with the power of the RIAA/MPAA and their lobbying arms in Washington.

Someone in my family (whose name I will not mention out of respect to his privacy) told me that he voted Libertarian in this past Presidential race. While part of me feels like that vote was wasted, the part of me that is disgusted by the corporate control of Washington sees the logic of voting for a third party. As I've said before, don't mistake me for the slackers who think music, movies and software should be free. On the contrary, I believe that successful musicians, actors, programmers, etc. should be well compensated for the work they do and we should be willing to pay for their products. But when a small group of executives (none of whom are artists or developers) can shape a nation's policies, something is wrong.

OBL Turns Out Another One

Osama Bin Laden has issued another audiotape in which he threatens the US or something. I say "or something" because, to be honest, I couldn't care less about what this guy has to say.

Because it's not him.

Consider this: for a while after 9/11, OBL was releasing his messages on videotape. Then suddenly, all his messages began arriving with audio only. It's easier to find someone who sounds like Osama than someone who looks like AND sounds like him. My theory is that Osama is either dead or is so sick for whatever reason that he is no longer able to send messages. Or, he's hiding somewhere so remote that his people can't get tapes in and out of the area.

Either way, I find it amazing that these messages are still treated seriously. Bin Laden is one man and even if he is taken out of the picture, terrorism will continue. Our enemies in this war are not following one man; they are following what they believe is the true message of Islam.

Talkin' 'Bout A Revolution

I’ll be in charge one day and when I am, some of you will have cause for concern. I’m speaking to those of you who think you can drive. Stop kidding yourself---you don’t have the reaction times God gave a sloth. Furthermore, you have now surrounded yourself with distracting items: cell phones, DVD players, screaming children, etc. In the name of all that is holy, I have compiled a list of laws that will be enforced during a Dattilo administration.

1. If you can’t bench your own body weight, you will not be allowed to drive an SUV. I’m incredibly tired of seeing 90 lb. women who can barely see over the dashboard of their Ford Excursion barreling down the highway while talking on their cell phones and paying NO attention as they change lanes. Exception: if you can pass the Dattilo Advanced Tactical Testing Indicative Learning Oversight battery of tests (DATTILO, for short), you can drive an SUV regardless of age, height and weight. For more details on the DATTILO, see below.

2. All citizens over the age of 75 will surrender their license. While this will put a huge burden on public transportation, cars and the dangers they present in the 21st century driving environment exceed most 75-year-olds’ ability to react.

3. All drivers over the age of 60 and those drivers who have had more than one wreck in the past decade will need to take a driving test every year. Failure of the driving test will result in suspension of driving privileges for a period of five years.

4. All vehicle styles and add-ons will need to be approved by the PETE board. PETE will be discussed in more detail once proper copyrights are secured. Any style violations will result in your vehicle being dismantled by a PETE enforcement team.

5. Road violations will be determined by the PETE board. New violations will be added to current regulations, including: driving while stupid, rude lane change, general cluelessness, too damn slow, young and obnoxious, and asshat ear damage.

6. Driver's licenses will be issued in several "flavors" ranging from Restricted to Unlimited. The Restricted level will restrict the driver to traveling back and forth to work using a pre-approved route that avoids interstate highways. People seeking an Unlimted license will have to pass the DATTILO battery of tests, which includes, but is not limited to: driving an obstacle course at speed, flat tire driving, evasive driving, driving while being fired upon, off-road driving and emergency escapes.

7. Texas will be handled as a separate nation because, well, it’s a whole other country down there. Also, Peter P. will be appointed Emperor of Tejas and Secretary of Organized Sports for the nation. All road regulations will be determined by a state board of his choosing.

That’s a good start. Write your Congressman now. The sooner I’m in charge, the sooner we can begin making our roads fun again.

Torpedos And Rockets And Nukes, Oh My!

You may have read last week about Iran's testing of some sort of rocket-propelled super torpedo. I remembered reading one time about Soviet rocket torpedos, but that was in the 70's. Evidently, this "new" Iranian design is a re-warmed Cold War relic that is less than effective.

The first report I saw on this weapon was on CNN. I don't normally watch the station, but I was flipping channels and it caught my eye. The broadcaster was nearly breathless, as if a herd of 300 knot death machines was screaming up the Potomac right now, intent on sinking something. On top of the usual over-sensationalization we get from the American mainstream media, a story such as this shows me that most reporters are, well, not too bright.

I'm no military expert, but just a little bit of research and a call to the Pentagon would've quickly shown this test to be a non-story. But most newsrooms are filled with people who have zero military experience and even less experience with a world not loaded with academics or socialists, so their expertise tends to be restricted to the cynical comments that our drive-by society craves.

Has in-depth research been tossed overboard in a world with a constant deadline?

Still We Trade

From Drudge this morning:

FLASH: Heckler disrupts Chinese President Hu's speech on south lawn at White House: 'President Bush, stop him from killing'... 'Stop persecuting the Falun Gong,' she yelled... She also shouted in Chinese, 'President Hu, your days are numbered'... woman is taken away by uniformed secret service officers... right after Bush urged Hu to allow Chinese to 'speak freely'...

On China TV: As Hu Jintao was speaking, as yells of protesters became audible, the screen went black. Feed then came back and once again went black when woman was once again audible. During CNN International's post-speech commentary, at mention of south lawn heckler, screen went black again... feed returned when topic was no longer being discussed...

This is the kind of thing that does, and should, happen when democratic countries do business with despotic regimes with terrible human rights records. If China did not have over a billion citizens, would US industries be so keen to do business there? Of course not! In this amoral business climate, a country's laws are of no concern as long as they allow profits to be made. Look at Yahoo! and Google--not only do they not speak out against China's human rights record, but they have actually helped the authorities trace people who have spoken out against the government in e-mails.

I'm sure that some people will say that China will be changed by the influx of Western capital and ideas and that democracy will eventually flourish. That's thin reasoning when no one can point to an example in which that has actually occurred. The Soviet Union did not crumble because of Western influence, but rather because their economic system could not be sustained. China learned that lesson and is now experiencing a record-setting economy while still maintaining a centrally-controlled economy and Communist government. They've had it both ways for nearly a generation. Why change now?

Eastward Ho!

I'm back from Kansas City and I'm none worse for the wear. Sorry about the lack of posts lately---I've been so out of touch with the news for the past four days that I haven't had anything to write about. I should have something write-worthy in the morning. Be well.

Molly

My lovely wife Kelli has informed me that I have yet to post a picture of the newest member of our family, Molly. She's been with us for two weeks now and we're pretty sure it was meant to be.

On The Road Again

I'm leaving in the morning for Kansas City to help set up a new company office there. It's a nine hour drive from here, but I actually enjoy cross-country driving, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm taking a company laptop, so I should be around in the evenings. If all goes well, I should be back home Wednesday night.

Philly Hero

Bringing beauty to a mindless task.

I worked with a guy like Clarke until last year. His name was Robert and he worked in our mailroom. He was near retirement age when we met, but you would think he was much younger. He was full of energy and never seemed to be in a bad mood. He always had a smile, a joke, or some bit of gossip. Once he got to know your temperment, he would even bust chops every once in a while. When he retired last summer, he didn't tell anyone until about an hour before he left because he was too modest to accept anyone's praise. You don't meet many people like that in a working life.

News Morning

There are four items in this morning's news round-up that struck me.

First, there is Google's defense of their actions in China. Can we get a moment of honesty from this company that claims to "do no evil"? How about this: "We at Google are striving to make as much money as we possibly can. We see China as a market of over one billion people who will one day have broadband internet access. And, hey, Yahoo's doing it, so we need to get on board. Thus, we will do anything the pinko commie bastards in Beijing ask of us, from releasing cached e-mails to covering up human rights violations."

Just when I was building up a head of steam, I stumbled on this heart-warming piece from UC Santa Cruz. It amazes me that the same people who claim to be peace-loving, inclusive liberals gladly create an environment deemed threatening by university police in the name of keeping military recruiters off campus. The fastest solution to this (other than firing some sort of crew-served weapon into the crowd....ouch, did I actually type that?) is to simply deny the university any federal money. And before you talk about the students' free speech rights, consider that the school has an obligation under federal law to allow recruiters to recruit on campus. Since they left early, the university is not creating conditions where recruiting is possible. Finally, if Act-Up or GLAAD were recruiting gay students to be part of their organization and the Christians on campus were upset (as some of them would be), would their protest be OK?

Those of you following the story fo the Gospel of Judas will be interested in this, the story of how the National Geographic ended up owning the content of the manuscript. Dirty pool, indeed.

Finally, there is the story of the Marine reservist who, somehow, was on a TSA watch list and, thus, was delayed while coming home from Iraq. It's amazing that it only took five years for the TSA to become just as incompetent as any other government agency when it comes to common sense. I love this part:

The other reservists arrived at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as scheduled, but instead of immediately meeting their families, they waited on a bus for Brown.

"We don't leave anybody behind," 1st Sgt. Drew Benson said. "We start together, and we finish together."

Semper Fi

Hugh's Accurate Hammer

Hugh Hewitt has an excellent post on his blog comparing the current situation in Iran to the day in 1936 that Germany reoccupied the Rhineland. Hewitt's point is that Britain and France did nothing, which led to the Nazis making even bolder moves. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and it's very easy, 70 years later, to play armchair general. However, I agree with Hewitt's conclusions.

The main problem, besides the Left's unwillingness to take the War on Terror seriously, is that the American people are still not comfortable with the idea of preemption. This is actually a good thing, for we are a peaceful people. But the cost of waiting for a first strike has grown exponentially. As the world changes, it's very possible that the next attack on the United States or one of our allies could kill millions of people.

Hoppy Easter (Sorry, Sorry, Sorry)

You know Easter is on the way when this starts making the rounds. I love it.

The Fickle Crowd

This week's immigration protests are unprecedented, but not for the reasons you may think. I really didn't think of this until yesterday, when a co-worker of mine brought it to my attention. The size of the crowds, while rarely seen in some of the protest cities (such as Dallas) is not unheard of in this country. Nor, despite news reports to the contrary, is the peacefulness of the protesters. What is unprecedented is their effect: for the first time in American history, people who by law have no say in the governance of this country (because they do not pay taxes or have the right to vote) are going to have beneficial laws passed on their behalf.

The writing was on the wall when none other than Ted "Swimmer" Kennedy addressed the protest in Washington. While not everyone in the crowd was an illegal alien, many of them were. When someone with Kennedy's amoral sensibilities looks at the sea of faces, he sees one thing: votes---millions and millions of them. What could be better for the Democrats than to lock in the Hispanic vote for 70 years the way they have locked in the African-American vote? To them, and to many Republicans, it does not matter that illegal immigration is a simple matter of law-breaking. Yes, these people have the right to expect a certain level of human rights while living here. But to assume the rights of tax-paying, law-abiding Americans is a perversion. Yet, it is allowed to stand in the name of greater power by one political party or another.

I told my co-worker yesterday that when I read about the Roman Empire, it is possible to look at certain events and realize that a keen observer would've seen the handwriting on the wall and known that it was time to change course or face the downfall of an era. My sincere hope is that historians hundreds of years from now will not look at this time with the same logic and wonder why we allowed the illegal rabble to shape our laws.

From The Beyond

Yes, I'm still alive and kicking. The weekend was busy and my manager flew out of town today, so posting has been pushed aside for now. I have much to talk about, though, so please stop by on Tuesday.

In Boot Camp Again

So I’m the first on my block to have an OSX / Windows XP dual-boot Mac. I installed it mainly just to be able to say that I did it, but it turns out that it makes a pretty good gaming machine. According to the forums I’ve read, even new games run smoothly with the 128MB or 256MB VRAM x1600 ATI video chipsets included with the Intel iMac. So instead of blowing off the Windows partition and installing Suse 10.1 when it comes out (it’s still in beta), I’ll probably leave it on there so I can blow off steam every now and then.

For those who are not into all of this, please allow me to bring you up to speed so this post will make sense. Apple’s new high-end laptop (MacBook Pro), iMac and Mac mini all sport Intel processors. Everyone thought this meant that Windows would run on these machines with no problem. While this was not the case, some enterprising hackers managed to make it work. Whether or not Apple’s next move was in response to this is unknown, but on Wednesday the company released two things: a firmware update and a piece of software called Boot Camp.

Men cried; women swooned.

Boot Camp is an easy-to-use utility which allows an Intel-based Mac user to do two things: repartition the current OSX partition on the fly and install Windows XP on the new empty space. I have never had a more pleasantly surprising experience. Like most things Apple, the interface is intuitive and it did exactly what it said it would: I created an 80GB Windows partition on my 20” iMac and had XP installed in less than an hour.

As usual when something happens in the world of Apple, the world of the tech talking heads is abuzz with what all of this really means. My take (because you’re dying to know, of course) is that Apple is simply trying to make the barrier for switching to OSX lower by letting people still run Windows while they make the switch to new hardware and software. In my opinion, it’s a genius move because, while I believe Apple makes a superior operating system, it is sometimes difficult to wean yourself off of Windows-compatible software (in my case, a few games I’m fond of).

Ultimately, I think operating systems in general will become commoditized as everything (with the exception of Microsoft’s products) will be some sort of unix/free bsd-based product. When that occurs, people will think less about an OS’s features and more about reliability and security. Can MSFT compete in those realms? Not yet and if things don’t improve in Redmond, never.

Either In Or Out

The current immigration debate will, undoubtedly, be one of the central issues of the November elections. Thus far, I don't believe the Democrats or the White House own the high ground although, as usual, the Democrats are making all the emotional appeals. If there is ever to be a workable solutions to this mess, there needs to be common agreement on several points.

First, we must agree that we are a nation of laws. If someone is here illegally, then he is here illegally. There is not, nor should there be, any grey area with regard to the law. If people (liberals, mostly) continue to soft-sell the crime of entering the country illegally, then it will eventually become unenforceable through common use. I completely understand the urge to work in the United States, even if it must be done below the radar. I would probably do the same thing if I were in the same position. That does not make it acceptable.

Second, those Americans of Mexican birth need to decide if they really want to be Americans or merely work and live here. I say this because it seems as if Latinos demonstrate against tougher immigration laws as if they are one, united people removed from the rest of the nation. Naturalized citizens, regardless of their nation of birth, should be loyal to this country above all other places on earth. Those who are breaking the law to get here, even though they may share the same heritage, are different in that they are not Americans. They can become Americans, but protesting on their behalf only turns other Americans against them.

Third, employers who knowingly hire illegals should be put out of business. If there were no jobs to be had for illegals, then they would not sneak across the border. The giant, unstated truth in the southwest and other parts of this nation is that illegal labor drives a significant part of the economy. Until this is addressed, no other solution can be treated as genuine.

Finally, it is time to make English the official language of the United States. A common language unites a people, but we are quickly becoming a two language country. This breeds divisiveness, something that doesn't help the debate at all.

A Vote For Me Is...A Vote For Me!!!

If you listen to my podcast, or if you know that I do a podcast, or if you know what a podcast is, or if you own a PC with an internet connection, please visit Podcast Alley and vote for my podcast. Yes, I'm begging---I really, really need a good month. Thanks.

Molly

There's a new member of the Dattilo clan; her name is Molly. She is an 18-month old Shelty-something mix. She is playful and loving and will, undoubtedly, bring some excitement to our two-cat household.

I have never owned a dog. People seemed surprised when I tell them that, but it's true. Mom and dad almost always had cats, just because, I believe, they don't require too much attention. Needless to say, our lives are going to change. Our younger cat, Tigger, is taking the family addition better than I expected, but there is still much hissing and the occasional puffy tail.

This is going to sound bad, but I hate to see animals fight. It's not that I'm a softy (I am, but not about this); it's that I hate the disturbance. To be honest, if I wanted little creatures fighting in the house, we'd have kids. I'm sure things will even out in a week or so.

My mother used to say that people shouldn't wait too long to have children or get married because "you get set in your ways." I used to laugh at that; but here I am, on the cusp of 35, getting bent out of shape because a cat is hissing in the hallway. Wow.