CMoore.com

OK, despite this being broke thing and despite that the last one I got last year was broken (first one) and blew my fuses (second one)… I think I’m going to go get me some AC today. Supposed to hit 95 and my house is in the sun ALL DAY.

Yeah, I’m a weenie when it comes to heat. I just hate it. Hate being sweaty. I hate being uncomfortable that way. I should rephrase: I hate the change to heat, but I’m OK if it’s constant; I had no problems in Cancun or Florida, for example. It’s all about expectation-setting, baby!

All things being equal, though, I would much prefer cold. Apparently, I picked the wrong geologic era in which to be born. Damn. Why couldn’t my builders have made vertical opening windows? Why couldn’t they make AC units less ugly? Huh? Huh?

Alternatively, and after seeing the summer $500+ prices for AC, my studio room and the basement are relatively cool. Maybe I should just set up a bed in one of those. It’s not like I’m recording or doing anything in the basement anyway. Hmm…

it’s 2040, I’m in my underwear, and I’m just dripping sweat. F U, summer! F U greenhouse effect! F U global warming!

I swear, the next house I buy is going to either be deep in the woods with trees keeping me in shadow 12 months of the year or underground. One of the two.

Update: it was so hot, my cold water was skin temperature

I can’t decide if I want to stick with Grumpasaurus or not. On the one hand, it’s kind of fun, a fresh start, and it doesn’t mix the personal with the pundital (punditiocy?). On the other hand, it feels wrong to hide behind a psuedonym. I know there are a ton of valid, conservative reasons to do so… but it just feels like hiding. And I don’t like to hide. Even if it costs me a $200k/year job.

I’m leaning toward just coming back to cmoore.com and dealing with it. And trying to think of something to do with grumpasaurus, of course. Hmm. Should I port all those posts back over here? I kind of like the new look & feel over there… bleh. If I stay on cmoore, I’ve got to be more active on other sites and get more industry cred. I was going to do this with grumpy, because I’m just too damn good to not be getting more attention. Heh. One way or the other, I think I’m ready for more eyeballs.

In other news, I think I’ve decided to make Footballer’s Wives my shitty show that I record until I cancel my cable. It’s so cliched and awful that it’s come around the bend and become lovely. Or delovely.

In other other news, it’s really fucking hot in my house. You know it’s hot when a night with the windows open and the ceiling fan going don’t manage to get the temp below 80 by 8am the next morning. Yuck.

I’m going to be moving my non-personal blogging operations (you know, the fun and interesting stuff) to Grumpasaurus.com, starting tomorrow.

I’ll be keeping Grumpy somewhat anonymous, what with not porting any of the existing CMo content over and no links back and all that (any authors here are, of course, more than welcome to post over there, but you’ll have to reregister). Other than that, the content should be exactly the same high quality wedgepadrille-hating, fucked to death by a horse-having, humor friday guy. There might, might I say, be some politics and such discussed over there as well. You know, that icky stuff non-pop culture crap that is such a bore.

There are a few reasons for this, not the least of which is the increasing amount of deleterious real life consequences for people saying things like “fuck” or holding opinions contrary to the desires of the administration and the rest of the rabid bigotsphere. The new site will also provide the same cover to the other authors here who aren’t already using psuedonyms. The move also separates the news and the non-news; most successful sites have an overarching theme. I still won’t have that, but at least I won’t be mixing in boring ass life updates. Finally, “Grumpasaurus” is kind of fun. It’ll be a nice change of pace.

The goal isn’t so much anonymity as it is to raise the bar enough to deter the non-dedicated kooks from sending dead rats wrapped in rebel flags to my door. Any sort of real digging will turn my real name and address up, but at least it will only be the real haters coming my way.

The new site is obviously still a work in progress, as I work out the visual kinks and sections and whatnot. One of the major ways the new web has changed from the early days is that the appearance of the site itself has decreased in importance. Everyone can have sweet looking sites with only a little bit of work. And I can promise you – I guarantee you that I will do a VERY little bit of work on the visuals.

I rarely go to actual sites anymore and just read the RSS feeds. I think the rest of the world is moving this way as well. If you, too, are a feed eater, you’ll want to add the Grumpasaurus post feed and the comment feed to your reader of choice.

This is still a small site, but as we’re up to over 1200 uniques/day, it’s now or never. I thank you, dear readers (and the 40-something various feed subscribers), and apologize for any inconvenience.

Synopsis:

New site for the non-me stuff: Grumpasaurus.com
New feed
New comment feed

Shuttle launch to go ahead despite risk of ‘catastrophe’

NASA managers have rejected last-ditch pleas from their top safety officer and chief engineer to scrap next month’s shuttle launch, saying that they will press ahead despite potentially catastrophic risks.

The head of the US space agency, Dr Michael Griffin, overruled warnings that there was a “relatively high” chance the shuttle’s external fuel tank could shed some of its solid foam coating when it launches on 1 July, carrying seven crew including Briton Piers Sellers, an Edinburgh University graduate.

But it gets better. Rove Griffin is going to carry on! Well, the soon to be dead astronauts are anyway. Money quote:

Dr Griffin said: “I do not see the situation we’re in as being a crew-loss situation. If we are unlucky and we have a debris event on ascent, it will not impede the ascent. The crew will arrive safely in orbit, and then we will begin to look at our options.”

Crew-loss == they all die
debris event == they all die on reentry
options once in orbit: 0

I don’t want these sociopaths to be able to add another 8 lives to their ledger. Politics is not worth sending a 25-year old deathtrap up into space.

Just remember: Mars, bitches!

The anti-sex misogyny brigade strikes again! Louisiana gov. signs another incest protection act into law.

Louisiana Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed into law a ban on most abortions, which would be triggered if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns its 1973 ruling legalizing the procedure, a spokesman said on Saturday.

The ban would apply to all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest, except when the mother’s life is threatened. It is similar to a South Dakota law that has become the latest focus of the abortion battle.

Bonus points for having a woman sign the bill. Nice job, traitor to your gender. I’m putting in my claim on Kathleen Blanco’s uterus now. Kathleen, I expect you to ask me permission before you use your uterus for anything. Even menstruate.

I already gave for NOLA/Katrina, but Louisiana will never see another dime out of me.

The funny thing about being sunburned… or getting a haircut… or breaking your arm… is that people somehow feel compelled to note That New Thing Which is Different. When you think about it, someone saying “Hey…. you got a lot of sun!” is pretty weird. And funny.

I mean, we don’t go around saying “Hey, your shoe’s tied” or anything. Then again, we do tend to comment on the weather.

So I guess this is a banal observation about observing banalities. Slow news morning.

This one’s for you, Dad

… unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicles.

Police launched the future of law enforcement into the smoggy Los Angeles sky in the form of a drone aircraft, bringing technology most commonly associated with combat zones to urban policing.

The unmanned aerial vehicle, which looks like a child’s remote control toy and weighs about five pounds (2.3 kilograms), is a prototype being tested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Police say the drone, called the SkySeer, will be able to accomplish tasks too dangerous for officers and free up helicopters for other missions.

“This technology could be used to find missing children, search for lost hikers, or survey a fire zone,” said Commander Sid Heal, head of the Technology Exploration Project of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department

I’m sure that the realization the the drone can also be used to silently observe private individuals on non-public land (and public) never occurred to anybody. Nev-er. Because it’s about the children!

The existence and use of the drones is effectively no different than having a bunch of helicopters flying around – and cheaper too! – so you’ve got nothing to worry about. I mean what’s to worry about when you’ve got a mini-Predator roaming your skies? What? It’s not like UAV’s have been used to assassinate people before, like, ever, or that pushbutton video game violence dehumanizes the event and lowers the barriers to pushing the trigger or anything.

Yes, I realize it’s too small to carry a weapon… but it’s not too small to carry a laser designator. And if you’ve got spotters, why not have a full Predator around? You know, just in case. Just in case you spot the terrirrrists en flagrante terrrristo! In case Jack Bauer needs an assist. In case you see a Sikh running from a building and into a panel van?

FSM, I love technology! Woohoo! When I thought of the future, I thought of living in a police state under constant surveillance where the government pays no heed the laws as written in the books. Didn’t everyone?

I’m going to be out and about this weekend, doing things like seeing naked men on bikes and such, so light posting.

Anyway, there are roughly 3 trillion reasons to oppose Lieberman (and support his primary opponent, Ned Lamont). For those still undecided, I present the following:

’nuff said. Enjoy your weekend.

dday, a Kossack, is doing his/her best to further the agenda of the anti-funnytistas worldwide with this truly idiotic diary.

Summary: a tech dude was at YearlyKos. While there, a truck slammed through his house, and had he been there, both he and his child would have been killed. But they weren’t. Because of YearlyKos. So he said thank you, YK, for everything. Touching story. Give ‘em some PayPal lurve.

Then Harry Hutton (who is one of those natively hilarious types that drive us mere quippers insane with jealousy… yeah, I’m speaking to you too Worker #3116. bitches.) wrote (in reference, ironically):

I am not easily moved to tears, but this post had me crying like a baby. Just think… he could have been… and the little ones are safe?… thank God for that!

Kos once saved my life too. I was reading a post about Senator Joseph Lieberman, and it was so dull that I got up to run my head under a cold tap. Just then this assagai comes flying through the window. Zulus! Fuck! If it hadn’t been for Kos, I could have wound up in a cooking pot. I’ll always be grateful to him for that.

Anyway, so we formed a laager, called for reinforcements and went all Rorke’s Drift on their arses, and it all ended happily with a glorious slaughter of tribesmen. That was the day Boris Johnsons won the Victoria Cross.

Funny! Goddamn funny. I’m still LOL’ing over here. For the record, Hutton is a Brit lefty. There was another comment later, by dsquared … who happens to be a writer for the (lefty) Guardian:

That Daily Kos type is gonna feel pretty fucking stupid when the guy who missed him first time comes back for the second attempt.

Funny! Fun-nay.

Of course, D-Day, in his/her infinite wisdom, sees this and thinks “not funny! They are obviously eliminationist rightwing fascists!” because… drumroll please… mouthbreathing sack-of-hammer-stupid trogolodytes of the rightwing bigotsphere linked to the Hutton post! OMFG! It’s teh nazis! They link to Hutton, therefore Hutton is bad! (You wouldn’t happen to be a member of my State pursuing the same logic v. online “gambling” by any chance, would you?).

Here’s D-Day’s commentary: (more…)

As a followup to my earlier post on this ridiculous, unconstitutional law, it looks like the state is proceeding even beyond the text of the statute here. Tell me again how infringing on people’s First Amendment rights is Constitutional? I’m confused.

The first casualty in the state’s war on Internet gambling is a local Web site where nobody was actually doing any gambling.

What a Bellingham man did on his site was write about online gambling. He reviewed Internet casinos. He had links to them, and ran ads by them. He fancied himself a guide to an uncharted frontier, even compiling a list of “rogue casinos” that had bilked gamblers.

All that, says the state — the ads, the linking, even the discussing — violates a new state law barring online wagering or using the Internet to transmit “gambling information.”

“It’s what the feds would call ‘aiding and abetting,’ ” says the director of the state’s gambling commission, Rick Day. “Telling people how to gamble online, where to do it, giving a link to it — that’s all obviously enabling something that is illegal.”

This is overreaching bullshit. I’m a member of the bar of this state and I tell you here and now that this will be struck down as unconstitutional (state and federal). This is an easy violation of the First Amendment rights of individuals. This is not yelling fire in a movie theater, this is non-obscene, newsworthy commentary.

The text of the section I’m sure they’re relying upon, effective June 2006

Whoever knowingly transmits or receives gambling information by telephone, telegraph, radio, semaphore, the internet, a telecommunications transmission system, or similar means, or knowingly installs or maintains equipment for the transmission or receipt of gambling information shall be guilty of a class C felony subject to the penalty set forth in RCW 9A.20.021

The definition of “gambling information“:

“Gambling information,” as used in this chapter, means any wager made in the course of and any information intended to be used for professional gambling. In the application of this definition, information as to wagers, betting odds and changes in betting odds shall be presumed to be intended for use in professional gambling. This section shall not apply to newspapers of general circulation or commercial radio and television stations licensed by the federal communications commission.

The bold part is what I’m sure they’re going to try to shoehorn in to fit the law. Look at the carve outs to the definition. Can you spot the gigantic medium not listed? I knew you could!

According to the State’s gambling commish, it is now a conspiracy to commit a class C felony to discuss, using publicly available information, casinos. By their logic, it is also a crime for me to tell you that to fire a single action revolver, you pull back the hammer then pull the trigger … while aiming at a bunny. Or orphans.

Even more, linking to a website for information that could be used for gambling is illegal? What about a link to a site where odds are calculated? Why not make it illegal to link to a page that links to a page that links to a page with gambling information? What about a link to a site showing people how they can use their browsers to surf the internet? Not only could a how-to video lead to gambling, but also child porn and terrorism! Will no one think of the children?!?!?

What about a Washington resident who hosts a gambling information site in North Dakota? Are they liable? What about if it’s hosted in Canada? What about a North Dakota resident who rents server space from a Washington company? What about a North Dakota resident hosted in Canada? Are you going to sue them under Washington law? On what grounds?

There are numerous cases as to linking and the legality of such. MPAA v. 2600 will probably be looked to by the State. The case, which was both wrongly decided and contrary to prior First Amendment law, is not controlling for Washington courts (different jurisdiction. The holding is considered persuasive but not dispositive). The “deeplinking” cases (usually involving Ticketmaster) aren’t going to apply because those were copyright holders trying to enforce their copyright against a linkor whereas here the State is trying to say the linkor committed a felony. The State’s legal footing is slim, at best.

I’m sure the advertisements will be attacked as commercial (unprotected) speech for the purposes of constitutional review, but this is a blatantly bad move by the State. Controlling illegal activity, fine. Controlling people’s speech? Unconstitutional. This is in addition to the laws blatant unconstitutional infringement on the Commerce Clause of the federal Constitution. Just bad news all around.

Side note: my bumper sticker Atriotic commentary would be “The Republicans won’t let me do drugs and now the Democrats won’t let me gamble. This sucks.”

How ridiculous is it when a paper’s online arm listing sporting odds is doing something illegal (the newspaper exception can’t apply because it’s on the internet. Will no one think of the children yet?!?!) Also, I expect to be sued for linking to the paper printing the betting odds for the NBA Finals game 5.

But it’s totally OK for the State to run their own betting parlor website.

Fuckers.

The worthless sack has apparently got her own perfume.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to fill in the blank.

Paris Hilton Perfume: Scent of a(n) ____

(alternatively, you can just describe what the perfume’s scent consists of)

Apparently, powerful DC douchebags think that a Pride Parade is a good place to try and score chicks for a threesome. Also, they give out their real cards and try to hook up with women half their age.

Classy.