Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Emancipating Hard Drives. Eric Canuteson, whose real estate investment company is registered as a Los Angeles County vendor, reports receiving the following notice the other day from Joe Sandoval, manager of purchasing and contract services at the county's Internal Services Department: The County of Los Angeles actively promotes and is committed to ensure a work environment that is free from any discriminatory influence be it actual or perceived. As such, it is the County's expectation that our manufacturers, suppliers and contractors make a concentrated effort to ensure that any equipment, supplies or services that are provided to County departments do not possess or portray an image that may be construed as offensive or defamatory in nature. One such recent example included the manufacturer's labeling of equipment where the words ''Master/Slave'' appeared to identify the primary and secondary sources. Based on the cultural diversity and sensitivity of Los Angeles County, this is not an acceptable identification label. We would request that each manufacturer, supplier and contractor review, identify and remove/change any identification or labeling of equipment or components thereof that could be interpreted as discriminatory or offensive in nature before such equipment is sold or otherwise provided to any County department. Thank you in advance for your cooperation and assistance. As Canuteson notes, Master/Slave is a standard designation not only for involuntary servitude (and kinky sexual relationships) but also for computer components. L.A. County presumably also frowns on references to "male" and "female" plumbing and electrical parts. [Hit & Run] Wouldn't this silly directive constitute a "discriminatory influence" against electrical engineers? 1:13:29 PM    comment () The Limbaugh Launderette. Rush is being accused of the federal felony of "smurfing," withdrawing hundreds of thouands of dollars in cash in amounts of less than $10,000 (in his case $9,900) to avoid filling out the federal forms for withdrawing $10,000 or more.... [LewRockwell.com Blog] Yet another "crime" that doesn't involve anyone doing anything wrong. 1:09:42 PM    comment () Difficult Days.... They've been bombing houses in Tikrit and other areas! Unbelievable· I'm so angry it makes me want to break something!!!! What the hell is going on?! What do the Americans think Tikrit is?! Some sort of city of monsters or beasts? The people there are simple people. Most of them make a living off of their land and their livestock- the rest are teachers, professors and merchants- they have lives and families· Tikrit is nothing more than a bunch of low buildings and a palace that was as inaccessible to the Tikritis as it was to everyone else! People in Al Awja suffered as much as anyone, if not more- they weren't all related to Saddam and even those who were, suffered under his direct relatives. Granted, his bodyguards and others close to him were from Tikrit, but they aren't currently in Tikrit- the majority have struck up deals with the CPA and are bargaining for their safety and the safety of their families with information. The people currently in Tikrit are just ordinary people whose homes and children are as precious to them as American homes and children are precious to Americans! This is contemptible and everyone thinks so- Sunnis and Shi'a alike are shaking their heads incredulously. [Baghdad Burning] A look at how an Iraqi views the current attempts by the US government to make everyone in the world hate Americans. 11:59:11 AM    comment () Does Not Compute!. Danger, John Derbyshire! Danger! Danger! The recent Massachusetts decision on gay marriage appears to have caused the equivalent of a divide-by-zero error in the circuitry of conservative brains, which are short circuiting en masse. The spate of frantic comments seen in the last twenty four hours may collectively make less sense than everything conservatives have said on the topic up to this point... which is pretty impressive. It takes a special kind of hostility to equal rights, for example, to descend to the point where the following inane arguments count as "thoughtful": Under the traditional restrictions, a man cannot marry his daughter, or, a fortiori, is son, and so if he leaves them a very large inheritance, it is taxed, although what he leaves his wife is not taxed. But under a general license to 'marry' another man, a man could marry his son, and thus pass his property to the son tax-free. [...] [W]hat if two men who are partners in crime take the precaution of marrying, so that they can each be sure that the other one won't turn state's evidence at trial, should they be caught? So, despite the fact that a general right to marry someone of the opposite sex hasn't compelled us to allow father/daughter marriages, a general right to marry someone of your own sex is (apparently) going to require us to license father/son marriage. And while the spousal privilege loophole is apparently not cause for concern when it comes to mixed-gender partners-in-crime, so many male criminal partnerships will "take the precaution" of marrying first that we'll have to dispense with it. Derbyshire earlier wondered whether cellmates might now marry (the point? your guess is as good as mine), while fellow Cornerite Stan Kurtz linked an only barely more coherent piece that pushes the limits of even Maggie Gallagher's prodigious powers of vacuity. Apparently, the notion that you should be allowed to marry the person you love, whether or not you intend to have children, is equivalent to the claim "that children don't need mothers and fathers." Permitting childless couples also, it seems, amounts to "conduct[ing] a great social experiment on children." Because, you see... err, no, I can't even come up with a facetious line of argument on which that follows. [Hit & Run] 10:21:10 AM    comment () Christina Stokes at Scotsman.com - Strip search that spares your blushes - millimeter wave technology that replaces the declothed body with a computer-generated mannequin. This somehow makes it "OK" to search you without your consent and without a warrant. It's fighting terrorism, don't you know. For the children. Not yet ready for prime time, but the jackboots are working furiously. [claire] The powerful scanner, which was developed by American scientists, uses millimetre waves to see through clothes. It works because the fibres in clothes are less than a millimetre across, allowing the light waves to pass right through them. A special camera using the waves can see through clothes as easily as we can see through glass. And the picture it creates can be seen on a screen so operators can see not just if a person is carrying arms, but also drugs and plastic explosives. Non-metallic illegal substances like these are not picked up by normal airport scanners. ... The scanner could eventually be used not just in airports and train stations but in all public places. Petillot explained: "At the moment there is no real way of checking fans coming into a football stadium or pupils going into a school to see if they are carrying knives. "The millimetre wave technology needs people to pause for a second at the moment. But it's possible that when the scanning software is developed it could get quick enough to scan crowds passing through turnstiles into a football match." Another advantage of millimetre wave scanners over current technology is they do not interfere with pacemakers. Petillot said: "The camera just receives the rays a person emits, rather than sending out waves itself. So it doesn't interfere with pacemakers and there are no risks involved in people going through the scanner." And Petillot believes similar technology could be used to scan lorries and trains crossing borders for illegal immigrants. [End the War on Freedom] 10:00:10 AM    comment ()

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