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Thursday, May 12th, 2005
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12:18 pm - Erm.
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| Wednesday, May 11th, 2005
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3:32 pm
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| Tuesday, May 10th, 2005
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11:06 am - Tidbits and odd bits.
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Blegh, mornings suck when you're short on sleep. Still, RP is worth sacrificing the occasional night's rest for. And this particular morning isn't all bad...
Conversation between me and one of the interns at work this morning:
<Intern> Erm, Shad?
<Me> That would be me.
<Intern> Could you take a look at this? I'm getting an error here...
<Me> *goes to peer over the intern's shoulder, sees several frames of "503 unauthorized - you do not have permission to execute the script blah.cgi here"*
<Me> Hmm. What does the error log say?
<Intern> ... I hadn't looked at it yet.
<Me> And why haven't you looked yet?
<Intern> ... Looking into it now.
<Me> You're learning.
And lo, he did read the error log and thus he was enlightened. (directory lacked the ExecCGI option)
I think he'll work out fine.
This fellow, on the other hand, won't:
( Cut for rampant stupidity. No names have been changed. )
$DEITY forbid he'd actually have to walk a whole five hundred meters to get some information he's clearly too stupid to think straight about.
(The "I'm swedish" bit bears out, though - someone with his nickname logged in from a generic swedish IP the day before, although he PTOed five minutes later without ever saying anything. Make of that what you will.)
current music: Something unpronouncable on Radio Free Mars
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(press here for service)
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| Monday, May 9th, 2005
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12:31 pm - Song Lyrics: Frank Boeijen - Welkom in Utopia (Welcome to Utopia)
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Okay, doing something new this time -- this particular group, like Within Temptation and anouk, is dutch. What's different is that this song isn't sung in english. But a friend of mine recently asked for it, and I thought I'd add the lyrics and as close a translation as I can manage.
( a-one, a-two, a-one-two-three-four )
And ( Here's that in English: )
current mood: musical
current music: Frank Boeijen - Welkom in Utopia
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12:00 pm - And while we're on the topic of religious stupidity:
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10:55 am - Finish the following sentence:
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| Friday, April 29th, 2005
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4:07 pm - Gah.
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| Thursday, April 28th, 2005
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4:03 pm - VICTOLY
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Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 15:54:33 +0200 (CEST)
From: webhosting@swordbreaker.systemec.nl
Subject: Webhosting voor www.epdc-pipeline.com
To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
Webhosting voor www.epdc-pipeline.com:
FTP username: fnord
FTP password: fnord
Server Name: www.epdc-pipeline.com
Account created on Thu Apr 28 15:54:33 2005
I RULE.
*thud*
current mood:  accomplished
current music: Radio Free Mars
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| Tuesday, April 26th, 2005
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8:49 am - Gah.
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| Friday, April 8th, 2005
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4:01 pm - Memeness
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| Tuesday, March 29th, 2005
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12:45 pm - This is getting to be a tired old theme
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Found this little atrocity of an article by way of the inimitable ![[info]](http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/web.archive.org/web/20050517113805im_/http:/=2fstat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) aris_tgd. In her LJ post, she quotes the most sacred oath that every single western physician is expected to have sworn when they took up the practice. Those among a crop of students that are devoutly religious are generally encouraged and permitted to end it with "So help me <insert name of deity here>".
I remember being at the graduation ceremony of my brother and his girlfriend. I remember them taking this oath, swearing to dedicate themselves to the well-being of their fellows, without regard for race or creed. I've never been prouder of him than I was then.
Words can not describe the sheer amount of virulent hatred and loathing I feel for the filthy, hypocritical, bigoted scum that wants to defecate on that oath just because some people offend their small-minded religious sensibilities, and then wrap their bigotry into lofty-minded "freedom of religion" as an excuse.
The last two paragraphs of the article:
Paul A. Long, vice president for public policy for the Michigan Catholic Conference, said the bills promote the constitutional right to religious freedom.
"Individual and institutional health care providers can and should maintain their mission and their services without compromising faith-based teaching," he said in a written statement. GEEZUS BLOODY FUCKING CHRIST ON A RAZORBLADE BUTTPLUG.
Exactly what "faith-based teaching" (and I won't go into how every time some idiot uses that term I want to vomit) is being "compromised" when you're expected not to care what your patient's preferred partner's gender is any more than you'd care about their natural skin color or their opinion on the relative merits of the Lakers and the Mariners?
The last time I checked, "without regard to race, creed, nationality, ethnic origin, gender, ideology, religion, economic status or other factor or value" didn't come with an "except for those icky gays, because they're not really people" clause.
Seriously, what is WRONG with these people?
current mood: furious
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| Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005
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1:19 pm - Drive-by whining
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12:57 pm - Geh.
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As an addendum to the little rant I had a while ago, and as interesting contrast to the current political farce that Terri Schiavo's "life" has become, I'd like to share this little news item.
Homework question for the day: Which current president of the United States was governor of Texas when this particular law was written and signed?
I'd continue on with my usual rant about the bunch of lying, morally bankrupt hypocrites that managed to get themselves re-elected, but honestly, what's the point? Anyone likely to get it already knows. Everyone who still doesn't get it is either being deliberately myopic or so insanely small-minded that they'd let them get away with any atrocity just as long as they make sure those icky gays can't ever be allowed to marry.
Cheat sheet: here.
current mood: irritated, not to mention sick and tired of having to rehash the same theme
current music: Radiohead - No Surprises
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| Friday, March 11th, 2005
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3:51 pm - From the It's-About-Time dept.
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Muslim clerics in Spain issued a fatwa against Osama Bin Laden on the anniversary of the Madrid train bombings.
Salient quote from the article:
It added: "Inasmuch as Osama bin Laden and his organization defend terrorism as legal and try to base it on the Quran ... they are committing the crime of 'istihlal' and thus become apostates that should not be considered Muslims or treated as such."
The Arabic term "istihlal" refers to the act of making up one's own laws.
Okay, christians. The muslims are giving the right example; you guys are running out of excuses to ignore Jerry Falwell.
current mood: pleased
current music: Astral Projection - Still Dreaming
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10:18 am - Blergh.
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Now, a while ago I made a post explaining my scepticism regarding the sincerity of Bush's little outreach tour.
Sometimes I really hate being right.
The best part? Second to last paragraph.
Ereli said the United States, which ratified the convention in 1969, "never anticipated ... that the ICJ would be used to review cases of domestic criminal law."
So let me get this straight. You're telling me that when you agreed to this treaty, you never 'anticipated' that anyone would actually call on you to actually abide by it?
Thanks for clearing that up.
current mood:  irritated
current music: None yet - browsing through my library database
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| Thursday, March 10th, 2005
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1:30 pm - Can't just gripe, can we?
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In slightly better news, a majority taken from political parties all across the spectrum agreed to strike several qualifiers from certain adoption and paternity laws.
To whit, the ones forbidding gay couples to adopt under most circumstances, and the ones that stated that if one of the partners in a lesbian marriage bears a child, their partner does not get parental status.
I'm very pleased with this. Not for myself so much as for my aunt, who together with her partner has been at the forefront of this particular battle for at least a decade and a half.
Congratulations, Harriet.
current mood: chipper
current music: Enigma - Gravity of Love
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1:13 pm - Grah.
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Now a while ago I decided to show a little consideration for those americans in my audience that didn't like some darn furrner bitch about their country and use LJ-cuts and proper disclaimers to warn them when something pissed me off.
However, after reading this particular piece of hypocritical bullshit, I've decided to dispence with the niceties for a change.
Let me spell it out for you: Yes, the Netherlands does indeed have laws defining under which circumstances the euthanasia of infants is permissible. From memory, those circumstances have to include multiple expert opinions that yes, this child is suffering from terminal, painful and above all, incurable ailments (usually birth defects so catastrophic that they defy surgical correction and severely impair the child's ability to live independent of life support for any length of time) as well as informed consent of the child's parents. And even then, every single detail that could possibly be relevant to the case has to be documented and the doctor that performed the euthanasia has to explain the case to a review board afterwards.
This is done so that when a child doctor is faced with two emotional shipwrecks and a baby that more closely requires an abstract clay sculpture done by picasso on an LSD trip that needs to be permanently hooked up to five machines just to live for more than a handful of minutes, has a set of guidelines to steer by and decide when the part of his Hippocratic oath where he swore to preserve life stops taking precedence over the part of that oath where he also swore to alleviate suffering wherever he could, and to not make that kind of terrible choice any more diffucult and painful than it already is by automatically slapping him with a murder charge.
Now, of course, as was recently proven, a majority of Americans has no patience with anything that isn't perfectly black and white and doesn't want to believe in the possibility that some issues are more complex than can be fitted into a five-word catch phrase that sounds good as a headline. So I really shouldn't be surprised that the bigot-and-imbecile brigades of Focus On The Family (Or as I'm starting to refer to them, Fart on the Facts) jumped on this in full hysteria mode and got it wrong.
Here's a quote from one of their resident "experts":
Carrie Gordon Earll, bioethics policy analyst at Focus on the Family, said she thinks the U.S. medical community strongly opposes newborn euthanasia but that some cases have occurred.
"If they're done under cover and secret ... they should be prosecuted," she said. "This is not the Netherlands and we should not be on a slippery slope to baby infanticide."
I shouldn't bother to poke fun at the redundancy in "baby infanticide" when I have a larger issue to address, but what kind of 'policy analyst' can you be if you can't even get your terminology straight?
Besides, that's not what I'm upset about. Allow me to lift another quote from the same article to illustrate:
In the United States, some doctors and ethicists -- both supporters and opponents of euthanasia -- say newborn euthanasia has happened occasionally for decades, although it is much more common, and accepted, to withhold or stop intensive treatment and let the baby die.
So to summarize: It's aborrent and immoral and vile to quickly and painlessly end a life that was doomed to know nothing but pain and suffering, but it's perfectly acceptable to turn away and tell a pair of already-greaving parents that you're going to leave their child to slowly starve and/or suffocate in its own time?
I guess I was mistaken. This isn't about the bible (with the possible exception of Matthew 27:24)so much as it is about hypocrisy covering up moral cowardice. Of course, it's your country, and far be it from me to tell you how to live your life, but kindly shut the fuck up with the "culture of death" hysteric hyperbole just because our political leaders can at least occasionally get their heads out of their asses far enough to recognize that inaction is also an action and when to let people who have spent a significant amount of their lives training do the job they trained for the best they know how.
I think that pretty much covers what I had to say about this.
Peace, all.
current mood:  irate
current music: Disposable Heroes
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| Wednesday, March 9th, 2005
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4:57 pm - Song time
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| Tuesday, March 8th, 2005
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3:51 pm - *nnngh*
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Cargo-cult programmers.
AUGH.
Why me?
current mood: aggravated
current music: Sarah McLachlan - Building A Mystery
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| Monday, March 7th, 2005
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3:28 pm - Gah.
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WTF.
Okay, if this is how they intend to do business, I think it's safe to say that the EU has failed to justify its existence.
[EDIT]: For those who still believe that patents can't be all that bad, please take a look at this news article for just one example of what's so completely out of control with software patents.
current mood: furious
current music: Enya - China Roses
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| Saturday, March 5th, 2005
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12:43 pm
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This pretty much says it all.
So if any of you use Friendsditto, or plan on using it, please let me know so I can take you off my friends list? I don't care whether you're using the "premium" service or not.
Nothing personal, but the reason I post things as friends-only is because I feel that the entire world does NOT have my permission to read them.
current mood: irritated
current music: Gregorian Masters of Chant - Moment of Peace
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12:40 pm - Woot.
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Go Denmark!
Looks like Bill stepped on a few too many toes back when he paid a visit there to strong-arm them into accepting the proposal. Whoops. Karma's a bitch, Billy.
current mood:  jubilant
current music: Adam Parsons Project - Old and Wise
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| Friday, March 4th, 2005
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4:13 pm - Well...
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11:41 am
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Not that this comes as any kind of shock or anything.
Of course, I'm just a cynical unreasonable microsoft-basher, not to mention an IP Communist, so what does anyone care about my opinion?
Of course, it might be a good idea to point at Microsoft's track record when it comes to abolishing any possible competition and potential competition by means foul or fouler...
But really. Everyone who hasn't spent the last decade living under a rock already knows all of this, or has managed to convince themselves that Bill Gates Can Do No Wrong with a certainty that approaches religious fervor and thus isn't going to listen anyway, so what's the point in arguing? The stage is set, the battle lines are drawn and the fighters are ready to throw down. We'll just have to see who's still standing when the dust clears.
In better - or worse - news, both Poland
and the Netherlands have publically stated that they'll support a motion to kick the current proposal off the table and have the process restarted from scratch... As long as they don't actually have to make the motion themselves. Bloody fucking hypocrites.
current mood: disgusted
current music: Radiohead - Fitter Happier
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| Tuesday, March 1st, 2005
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7:39 am - Augh.
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I wish I could say this came as a surprise.
So at which point are we going to ask the commission members how much, and by who, they are being paid to so blatantly ignore not only vocal public opinion but multiple directives of the European Parliament?
There's a referendum vote coming up in .nl about accepting the european constitution. I want this issue cleared up before I'll vote yes.
current mood: irritated
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