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Democratic Conundrum
Well, here’s a pickle for you. President Bush has been pushing the whole democracy in the Middle East thing for the last couple of years. For a long time, he was pushing for free elections in Palestine, especially since the U.S. really didn’t like Arafat that much. So, the Palestinians oblige, elections are held, people […]
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Quis custodiet custodes ipsos?
To security professionals, Bruce Schneier is considered a guru. His book, Applied Cryptography is considered the authoritative book on computer security, and is the first book anyone should purchase when considering entering the field. Bruce has published an article in Wired entitled, “The Eternal Value of Privacy“, where he defends an almost Calvinistic distrust in […]
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Why Encryption is Good
After watching recent events regarding our Federal Government reading the phone records of American citizens, and the acknowledgement by the NSA chief that they’re monitoring the phone calls of Americans, I’ve decided I’m getting a little annoyed with these casual little incursions into our privacy. Since it seems that our Federal Government has show no […]
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Memorial Day Pig Roast 2006
Once again, it’s time for the (fourth) annual pig roast, and you all are invited to attend the party at the home of Tom and Sarah Albrecht. We plan on starting off around noon, and going into the evening. The pig should be done around 4pm, but we’ll be serving food throughout the party. Please […]
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Preparing the Heart for Giving Birth
This is a letter I sent today to a friend whose baby is due next week. I wanted to save it to remind myself of these things, and hopefully it will encourage others as well. Dear — Sorry I missed you last week! Had I seen you, I would have given you a big hug […]
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Republican Lip Service
Every now and then, I read articles like these, which confirm my opinion of the Republican Party. I don’t post all of them, since I don’t want my blog to sound like a skipping record. But, I’ll post this one, entitled “GOP brushing off abortion opponents“. Liberals and plenty of Republicans have long questioned whether […]
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What’s Your Beer Personality
You Are Guinness You know beer well, and you’ll only drink the best beers in the world. Watered down beers disgust you, as do the people who drink them. When you drink, you tend to become a bit of a know it all – especially about subjects you don’t know well. But your friends tolerate […]
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Google Earth Plus
Since the kids have been asking to go treasure hunting again, I finally broke down and bought a GPS receiver, a Garmin GPSMap 60. We’re planning on going out today or tomorrow to go find some caches in Lancaster county. For a small fee, I found out I can upgrade Google Earth to import data […]
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But a Sub is Just Not the Same
Looks like some students at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee conducted a dialect survey, asking questions like how do you pronounce “coupon” (the correct form is “coop-on”), or whether selling things in your back yard is a tag sale, a garage sale, a rummage sale, or a yard sale (again, the correct answer is […]
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He Must Play Darts
My boss and I were sitting in the business class lounge at Narita Airport. We had been out the night before at a bar on Akasaka-Mitsuke playing darts, and had a great time. As often happens when I have a glass of Bailey’s Irish Cream on ice in my hand, an epiphany came over me. […]
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Ubuntu Rules
You know, my life is busy enought with “normal” activities without the random emergencies that keep popping up. Somehow, my wife managed to get the SurfSidekick installed on her computer. ‘Tis an annoying piece of software that causes random advertisements to load up one’s browser, no matter what you happen to be doing. I ran […]
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The End of Dollar Hegemony
Ron Paul gave the following speech before the House of Representatives on February 15, 2006. It’s amazing that such an honest man could ever be elected to public office. ——– A hundred years ago it was called “dollar diplomacy.” After World War II, and especially after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, that […]
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Thanks for Lost Wallets
My meager poem about losing (and finding) my wallet and how it helped my perspective of my trip — before it even began. Leaving for Japan. Will be gone for a few days. Stay tuned. ————— Dear Lord, You know how prepared I was for my trip, Every little thing perfect And yet, despite my […]
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Baby Announcement
I’d never imagine that I would congratulate Tom while he was in an airport terminal, but such was the case today. His flight was cancelled and he ended up in Minnesota. He was online, and I was able to tell him that… Baby # 5 is due (unofficially) October 2nd. If it’s not a girl, […]
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Super Tired Man
Thomas: “I’m Super Tired Man!” Dad: “Heh. And what are your powers?” Thomas: “I sleep AND I’m fast!”