Ramblings of a Technology Addict

Thursday, December 12, 2002

Bear Baiting on a Thursday

More thoughts as the day goes on, and this are in bit form, spread out a little bit.
...Cardinal Bernard Law is resigning today. As a Catholic, I am overjoyed at his decision, yet I still weep for the Church at large. I find that the Catholic Church, while a provider of hope and truth and support for many, is still home to many who do nothing but betray and injure in the name of their faith. Krempasky thinks that the reform movement in the Church got too much exposure in the process, but I can see where their anger and frustration is coming from. yes, I'm a liberal Catholic. And I don't make apologies for it.
...Trent Lott's in a lot of trouble. He said some brutally ignorant and stupid things. I hope that he chooses not to be the Majority leader, because I certainly don't think the majority of the Republicans feel as he does. I think the US under the rule of Strom Thurmond would not have been a good thing. However, why is Lott up there defending views that even Strom himself ihas repudiated as inappropriate? He's done nothing but give the rest of us decent, non-racist Republicans a bad name, and continued the nasty sterotype beyond it's boundaries. Step Down Trent. You're done.
...Had a long discussion this morning about Faith Based Initiatives in the US and the controversial position the Bush Administration has taken in providing them money. This is one instance I agree with the President. We have all sorts of faith communities providing support for the poor, the homeless and the disadvantaged across the united states who haven't been getting funded because they're christian or muslim or any other form of religion known under the sun. They're also working better than the State's own programs in some areas. We should stop throwing money at efforts that don't work and start funding programs that do, so long as they don't force the faith on the recipients of the service.
Okay, that's enough bear-baiting. Bring on the comments.
3:44:06 PM  comment []

Thursday morning rewind.

So, I made the Washington Post this morning in the Filter column written by Cindy Webb. Scroll down past the layoffs article to the section about yesterday's Australian stuff. There I am! Complete with Link!
Exciting, no?
If you want my full quote, scroll down the page here, it's below. Come here from the Post? Let me know.
10:33:05 AM  comment []

For The Love.

Okay, this post is going to start about the angry rantings of one man, and finish about the coolness of technology, so please bear with me.
This morning I opened my mail to discover a premium notice from State Farm. Now, let me preface this by saying, I am not an angelic driver. I had an accident last December and two speeding tickets (one in OH, one in VA), but generally, I don't harm other people, and by Beltway Standards, I am a saint. But I am also 24. And a white male. This makes me a risk to the insurance company. I apparently deserve a ton of derision from their people, in the form of my bi-annual policy review notice.
Yes, my premiums went up. After being assured by my agent after the accident (and the ticket that preceeded it) that my rates would only by roughly $1000 for the next six months, I got a notice that my next six months would cost me $2,200. Ow. Please let me say that again. OW.
So I called up Geico, whom I'd gotten a quote from back a few weeks previous in an effort to streamline my budget a little bit. They were happy to hear I liked their quote and ran me through the entire process of getting set up right then and there. Took about 15 minutes. The gentleman on the phone had hooks into the VA DMV and CA DMV and looked up my record right there and then. He also had hooks into State Farm's DB so he could pull my policy records over as well.
So now I'm a Geico customer.
But there's something that concerns me about the systems that were used to get my information today. What kind of potential is there for abuse of THAT particular system. That could be heinous. Imagine if someone could blackmail you with your driving record like that. Ouch.
10:28:18 AM  comment []