That all said, racism is being replaced with religiousism. You know, "I'm a Christian, so I'm better than you" kind of attitudes. The roundup of Muslims in LA is just another artifact of that. It's tribalism at its worst. One guy I know, who is now going through a divorce, had his wife tell him once something like "I'd rather make life miserable for you because then you're more likely to find God." What a crock. You know, there'd be a whole lot fewer divorces (and wars, and general bullshit) if people would stop concerning themselves with God so much and start giving their spouses more hugs, kisses, and, well, a few other things. You know, I've never heard a guy say "I hate my wife, she performs fellacio on me everynight" or a woman say "you know, my man is such a butthead, he performs cunnilingus on me every night."

Ryan disagrees with me that racism is dying out. Well, I'm more of an optimist. I remember days, even in Silicon Valley, where folks passed around a flyer asking if it was OK to sell to a black family (my mom and dad got such a flyer). That wasn't too long ago. I think I was about 11 years old then. Things are definitely getting better. Those around me with the most racist attitudes are the older ones. The kids, yes, still demonstrate some racism, but not to the extent of the older generation. Come on, things HAVE gotten better in the past 30 years. Yes, we can argue about if they have gotten good enough, or whether the change has been fast enough, but you can't argue with the fact that racist attitudes are dying out.

My wife reminds me that my comments only show up on my site if you visit my home page here: http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/

I don't know why they don't show up if you visit it here: http://scoble.weblogs.com . Ahh, hell, if you have something to say, do it on your own weblog.

As to the annonymous asshole who posted in my comments a few days ago: FOAD. I clearly wasn't saying that I ever thought racism was OK, but clearly society thought it was OK. Just like society today thinks it's OK to round up Iranians and put them in jail by the truckload. Hey, unless you're willing to stand up and do something about it, you are implicitly saying it's OK. At minimum, get a weblog and say for yourself on the record whether or not it's OK. I hate annonymous assholes. If you don't have the guts to put your name on an opinion you write, then please keep it to yourself.

Every day I put myself out here. What I say could have major repercussions (in some countries I would have already been put to death for what I write here). I work for a major company. I live in fear every day of getting fired for something I write here. But I continue to write? Why? Imagine what our lives would be like if we remain silent. Imagine what would have happened if America's founding fathers never wrote the constitution because they lived in fear of death or of getting fired?

Millions of people have died for the rights I practice every day. Think about that for a minute. It's my duty as a human being to write and to put my name to it. Yes, my hand does tremble when I write. I know what's potentially at stake. Put your freaking name on your opinions or go away.

Carl Franklin is an Internet pioneer and he's at it again with .NET Rocks! (an audio interview program with famous .NET programmers). He says his traffic is zooming. I can believe it. Carl clearly has fun and clearly gets the Internet. Why can I say that? He was the one who showed me (and about 300 other people) the Net for the first time at a conference in 1994. I'll never forget the first thing I saw him show: a horrible storm aimed at our hotel. Last week here in California reminded me of that conference presentation.

Thanks to Joi Ito for that information, by the way.

This roundup of Iranian-Americans hits home in a personal way. I married an Iranian American this year. I wonder how long it'll be before I'm rounded up and sent to prison for conspiring with an Iranian. It seems we're so willing to give up our freedoms. Shit, I've heard the stories of what the Iranian government does to their own people. Why we letting our government get away with this kind of behavior? Guess what, none of the terrorists who got us on 9/11 were Iranian. I wonder what is to be gained here?

I really want to send Zeldman email, particularly after his last missive. Hey, Jeffrey, we want you to stick around a few more years. Quit the smoking. In any case, we hope to meet up with him in New York for New Year's. We gonna party!

To all the .NET speakers who are wondering where Maryam went, she is on her own now and no longer works for the company I used to work for (is that obtuse enough? -- a few Google searches will help you figure it all out). Got a job for her? Send her an email to g_maryam@hotmail.com -- she particularly loves getting candy and gifts (thanks to Desaware!). Maybe Grinch won't win this Christmas. Give up trying to talk her into getting a weblog, though. It won't work. I've been trying that for a year.

You know, I got a look inside the bowels of Apple today, and boy do they have nice and cozy offices. I love their address: One Infinite Loop. Yes, the street is a loop. It never ends. I couldn't happen to remember playing in the orchard that the building was built on back when I was a kid. Isn't it ironic that Apple is built mostly on Apricot orchards? By the way, I still have techno lust over their Titanium laptop. The fonts suck on it, though, when compared to XP. XP's best feature is CoolType. By the way, if you have XP, make sure you visit the ClearType font tuner. It really helped make my fonts easier to read.

J. Scott Johnson and I were talking about how to properly pay off debts that you can't pay right now.

He had some good advice that his father gave him and he told me that it really helped him get out from under his business debts.

Wrong way? Don't say anything and try to hide.

Right way? Communicate. Give a regular report to the people who you owe a debt to. Pay them something on a regular basis. Even $25 on a multi-thousand dollar debt.

He told me that he's found that people who he owed money to were much more reasonable when he took this tact.

My thoughts? This is very valuable advice for many of us to follow (I am both owed, and owe money, so I find my friend's advice invaluable on this topic). It really pisses me off when I don't hear anything from people who owe me money and it makes me happy when I get a check of any amount and regular updates as to what's going on.

Any other webloggers have advice for dealing with tight budgets? I know many webloggers are out of work and might have some great advice to help other people in these situations.

Hey, Dan Gillmor of the San Jose Mercury News is playing around with a new weblog format. Nicer!

Sorry for disappearing for a while. My wife was laid ... off. Ahh, Mr. Murphy. Always reminding us that things can always get worse. Well, someday I'll wack Mr. Murphy upside the head.

Of course, Mr. Murphy knows he always gets the last laugh. He knows that we all lose in the end and end up worm food (or worse).