Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
– Benjamin Franklin

UPDATE: It seems a few people everyone missed the point here. I was most certainly not suggesting that anyone should vote republican, I was trying to point out the foolishness of this advertisement. I do not agree with the patriot act or any forms of government surveillance or arrest that are undertaken without a warrant. I strongly encourage readers to visit EFF’s website to learn more about these bills, and what can be done to stop them.

I would like to compile a list of bloggers in both countries, not to start blog comment wars between them, but so those of us who are on the outside can get as close to a first-hand perspective of what’s going on on the other side of the world as possible, from both sides of the conflict.

Bloggers in Israel:

• http://pixane.net/blog/

Bloggers in Lebanon:

• http://codedemigod.com/blog/
• http://lebop.blogspot.com/

Please add a comment to this post if you know of any blogs that I should add. Note that I am specifically interested in including people who are in (or were forced to leave) countries involved in the war, and not blogs that are just voicing their opinions regarding what they saw on the news.

Completely unreated, this video is *hilarious*.

My opinion: I think that if someone wants to say “Merry Christmas” then they should be able to, just as I think people should be able to say “Happy Holidays” or “Happy Hanukkah” (or whatever) if that is what they want to say.

I don’t think anyone can disagree with the fact that people say “Merry Christmas” a lot less now than they did even 6 years ago, but I wouldn’t call it a war…or blame the jews…or just be stupid about the whole thing. Apparently people are censoring themselves, or allowing themselves to be censored…or just don’t care?

I don’t watch TV, I don’t listen to the radio, and I don’t usually read the news. Based on walking around outside my neighborhood as well as downtown through all the stores, this December does not seem any different than any other. The war is in Iraq, people here just want to be happy. If you are offended by”Merry Christmas”, it is time for you to loosen up.

Fitzgibbons [the defending lawyer] said in July that plea negotiations had broken off because prosecutors insisted on prison time, which he said would be too dangerous for someone as attractive as Lafave.

I really hope that didn’t have anything to do with the judge’s desicion… would be a very sad day for the judicial system.

And you’ve really gotta wonder about some of these cases… I know the kid is 14 and all… but did anyone actually ask his opinion on what happened? Did this incedent actually do more pshycological harm to anyone other than ruining an (already broken) marrage and make someone look like a pervert?Does this even effect the sentance? I’m not condoning having an affair with someone who is possibly young enough to be your son (although not in this case…25-14=11…you get the point)… I think anyone who does have one is a pretty fucked up person…but I do wonder if some of these sex-related laws (such as strip club restrictions) are in place to serve as an example to the rest of society of what the lawmakers think is “right” or “moral” rather than actually keep people safe.

I will be giving an informal presentation with Andrew about Mono and Meshwork at Seattle Mind Camp next month.

Seattle Mind Camp is a self-organizing, digitally minded, entrepreneur-driven, overnight Seattle confab.

What happens when you put 150 of Seattle’s smartest geeks in an empty office building for 24 hours? We’re not sure either, but we’d like to find out. It’s time to meet and connect with those involved in the interesting projects going on in Seattle in a relaxed environment. Come, camp out, create.

More information at http://www.seattlemind.com/. If you are in the Seattle area and interested in attending, check the website or let me know.

Kanye, who didnt take a single breath during his entire rant and looked like he was going to pass out, was ranting on about the media being racist.

I hate the way they portray us in the meia. When you see a black family, it says they’re looting. You see a white family, it says they’re looking for food. And you know, it’s been five days because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I’ve tried to turn away from the teacher… TV because it’s too hard to watch. I’ve even been shopping before even giving a donation so now I’m calling my business manager right now to see what’s… what is the biggest ammount I can give. And… and just to imagine, if I was… if I was down there and those are… those are my people down there, so anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help with the… with the setup the way America is set up to help the uh… uh the poor, the black people, the uh… the less well-off as slow as possible. I mean this is… The Red Cross is doing everything they can. We… we already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war right now fighting another way, and they… they… they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us.

(That’s a fairly accurate transcription of what he said, you couldnt understand him any better on TV)

While there might be some truth in what he was saying, intentional or unintentional, this has no place in a national fundraiser. The goal of this special show was to raise money to help the victims of a horrible disaster, politics should have been left at the door. Both he and NBC should be ashamed for allowing this to happen, who knows how many people turned the TV off after that.

Also, for those of you reading this on monologue, I promise to blog about mono-related things again soon. Hopefuly I will be able to report meshwork progress (rather than failure) sometime later this weekend.

So I hear the weather in canada is sunny and liberal…