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Sunday, January 27, 2002
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Starter Marriages?. So there's this article over at ABCNews.com about "Starter Marraiges," which are supposedly short "practice" marraiges that many Generation Xers are experiencing nowadays. These marraiges typically start in the early 20s and usually last less than two or three years, often without children. Call me an old fart, or one who pines for the olden days, but as a "Gen Xer" in his "early 20s" this sounds like a pile of no responbility-taking horseshit. [kuro5hin.org]
11:10:45 PM 
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Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War A lot of this is pretty vague ("Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment" are prohibited). Also, quite a bit doesn't apply; it assumes a traditional military organization on the part of the prisoners.
Article 4 defines those eligable for POW status. You have to fulfill the following criteria:
(a) That of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;
(b) That of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance;
(c) That of carrying arms openly;
(d) That of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.
I don't know that Al Qaida members qualify.
As POWs, the prisoners couldn't be interrogated, which I think would be a bad thing. They couldn't be held in those cages, which I have mixed feelings about (they'd have to have the same housing as the marines at Guantanamo). They'd have to be given ID cards with their name, rank and serial number, which makes no sense in the present case. On the other hand, the Al Quaida terrorists would be required to salute the Marines, except for the "officers." I wouldn't mind seeing that.
10:17:38 PM
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No POW rights for Cuba prisoners. The US defence secretary says Afghan detainees held in Cuba will not get prisoner of war status, but are being treated humanely. [BBC News: world]
I have mixed feelings about this. As I understand it, POW status is for soldiers of a sovereign power. The philosophy is that they're just pawns, and in a weird way the fact that they're fighting for the other side isn't their fault. Soldiers fight in a war, and when the war is over, the soldiers who aren't dead go home.
That's not the case here. That's not what these prisoners are. They don't have homes to go home to. Fighting is their life, destruction is their purpose. I don't say that in anger; I think it's very sad, and I wish there was something we could do about it. At the same time, as long as they're going to try to kill me, my family, my friends, and anyone else American, I'm just as happy to have them in locked cells closely guarded by soldiers with guns.
10:05:53 PM
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Yesterday I posted a big sob story about a demo I spent the week working on but, in the end, I couldn't get the software it was running on to work. The purpose of the demo is to show how the products at my company integrate with those of this other company, and it's to be presented at a big show this week. I thought it was game over, but I guess not.
I just got off the phone with a Carl, a tech contact at this other company I was working with last week to get the problem solved. He's at the show with my boss, who gave him the problematic computer. We were able to get it up in running in about 10 minutes. My week has been redeemed, and it's the perfect topper to a very relaxing, enjoyable weekend.
9:57:29 PM
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Current reading project: Antrax. I've read all the Shannara books that have come out so far, they were a big thing when I was in middle school and high school, so I'm feeling sort of obligated. They're fun, but kinda juvenile (and, I'm noticing for the first time, repetitive).
9:50:28 PM
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Shannon and I went to see The Count of Monte Cristo last night. I hightly reccomend. It's like Les Miserables if Jean Valjean got fed up with everybody shitting on him about halfway through and decided to start kicking some ass. We went to Border's afterwards and bought the book, which I'd never read. I also picked up Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf. I've got a few books to read before I get to it, but you'll get a full book report.
9:43:08 PM
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I've been having such fun hacking away on Radio, I just had to buy it. I look back on my early skepticism about UserTalk and cackle. All it took was a big enough dash of Killer App Sauce to make the platform compelling. Radio 8 provided a generous measure of that ol' sauce, and my diggings under the hood haven't disappointed me. Thanks, UserLand! [Deadly Bloody Serious Radio] See? It's a platform!
9:34:15 PM
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Micah's Weblog - ps- sorry for the misspellings. I'm dyslexic and until radio builds in a spell checker I'm at a bit of a disadvantage.
1:36:41 PM
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Memo to George. Why worry about Enron when the Holy Trifecta -- Vanity Fair, Newsweek and NBC -- give us the full Monica treatment? [Salon.com] Sometimes (okay, often), Salon really pisses me off. Based on what's available here, there's no substance to this article. It's just an attack. It's the type of language a bully would use on the playground. I'm not necessarily a Bush supporter, but content like this doesn't do anything positive for anybody. And they expect people to pay for this shit?
2:51:51 AM
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© Copyright 2002 Christopher T. Nitchie
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