Peridyd's Progress

Madam Speaker (it sounds so good to say that),

In a few short weeks, you will be second in the line of succession to the office of president. In my opinion, and in the opinion of many of your constituents, the two who are at the helm of the Executive Branch have spent the better part of 6 years engaged in a systematic attempt to usurp the law and the Constitution while defrauding the American public and the Congress.

Therefore, I respectfully enjoin you to faithfully execute your oath of office and pursue articles of impeachment against GEORGE W. BUSH, RICHARD B. CHENEY, CONDOLEEZZA RICE, DONALD M. RUMSFELD, and COLIN POWELL.

However distasteful it might be to do so, Madam Speaker, however politically dangerous it might seem, our nation, our Constitution, and the ethical mandates to which all of us are accountable require that you do so.

The need to impeach George W. Bush is neither spurious nor unfounded. As former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega argues in her soon-to-be-released book (an excerpt of which is linked above), the case against the president is substantive, and the harm that has been done to the people of this country, Iraq, and of the world is demonstrable and criminal.

The question is not whether the President subjectively believed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The legal question that must be answered is far more comprehensive: Did the President and his team defraud the country? After swearing to uphold the law of the land, did our highest government officials employ the universal techniques of fraudsters -- deliberate concealment, misrepresentations, false pretenses, half-truths -- to deceive Congress and the American people?

Madam Speaker, so much is at stake here that you cannot hesitate nor make decisions based upon political exigencies. In a time of lax expedience, you must possess vision and resolve. In a time of moral cowardice, you must be both ethical and courageous.

Ms. Pelosi, put impeachment back on the table.

Posted by Dennis Bennett at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SwanDetail02, originally uploaded by Peridyd.

Better than a new PS3, Wii, or even a (gasp) new computer, I was gifted with a house full of laughter and aromas of which the most discriminating gourmand would relish.

My sister Danette in Ireland provided the menu suggestions and recipes, while my sister Diane, daughter Kira, and partner Amy spent the better part of the day cooking a meal that could only be described as a phenomenal success.

Thanks to everyone for making a milestone event so memorable.

I've added photos of the event to a previous Flickr birthday set (it appears that I've reached the maximum number of sets for a free account).
UPDATE: My good friend Paleck has graciously purchased a Flickr Pro account for me in honor of my birthday, so now I have limitless Flickr capabilities. Thanks, Paleck!

Posted by Dennis Bennett at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A humorous example of unintended consequences.

Though we'll see how funny I think it is when I get my Wii and have spent 10 hours in simulated auto racing in one day.

Thanks to Paleck for finding this.

Posted by Dennis Bennett at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Back in the day, Amy and I spent quite a bit of time (more than we perhaps should have) watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy's gone now, but her episodes live on in YouTube.

We could do worse than hope that our daughters would spend a lifetime surrounded by such mythic heroines while finding Willow's "bliss."

Reminded of it by Feministing.

Posted by Dennis Bennett at 09:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Found an odd post on a newly revamped blog called Web 3.0. What's it promoting? Why Web 3.0 of course, which will (putatively) link artificial intelligence and the web.

If you think that seems a bit circular and self promoting, that's probably because you're right. Nonetheless, there's some content there. Some stuff to struggle with, some good examples. It's not all fluff and hype. Not by a long shot.

The fact that the general public hasn't really caught on to Web 2.0 doesn't really mean much given the cultural logic of the investment community because it's all about getting in on the ground floor. In other words I don't have a problem, per se, with rolling out Web 3.0 before my mother knows what Web 2.0 is. (Sorry Mom. Didn't mean to put you on the spot.) My skepticism is fueled by the fact that all of the examples the writer gives have to do with companies exploiting the labor of human beings who'll be doing their marketing research for them under the guise of their having fun.

Social networking and data mining taken to the next logical step. What's better than poorly paid workers in Asian techno-sweatshops? Why unpaid workers in the developed world, of course. It has the evil ring of authenticity to it, doesn't it folks?

With apologies to Miranda and the Bard, "O brave new world, that hath such technologies/economic systems in it."

Via Slashdot, of course.

Posted by Dennis Bennett at 09:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Microsoft-related website has this hilarious screen saver. I'm doing 99% of my personal computing on Linux now, so I rarely boot up under Windows. This, however, makes me wish that I were running XP (don't get me started on Vista).

Maybe I should install it on my work laptop. Hehe.

It's interesting how Microsoft's Technet has embraced this. It's almost as if they've gained enough equanimity to poke fun at their own product. If this keeps up, next thing you'll hear is that they've partnered with Novell to make their software interoperable with Linux.

From Cybernet Technology News.

Posted by Dennis Bennett at 05:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's stories like this one that well nigh compel geeks to love Google. Mind you, Google's a business, and it's going to make problematic decisions because its bottom line is always going to be the bottom line.

Yet there's something refreshingly honest about letting your customers walk away from your service with their data. (It's also more than a little arrogant too, isn't it?) I mean, can you imagine Microsoft moving to open standards to allow their customers to migrate away from the .doc file format if they weren't satisfied with the latest Office product? Nope. Me neither.

Google's got a hacker mentality, and that's a good thing.

Thanks to ESR (you conservative libertarian dog you) for keeping the Jargon File online so I could get a reliable definition for Hack.

Posted by Dennis Bennett at 09:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have found the dreamiest Firefox plugin imaginable: Zotero.

Zotero provides you with a Endnote-like database for researching, but tuned for the web. I found it this morning, and just spent my lunch hour playing with it. It has the ability to analyze web pages in order to determine quite a bit of the meta data that you need in order to keep track of your web research. Additionally, it allows you to create categories, add notes, and generally do everything that you need to do in order to--get this--output the research data into 6 different formats.

In other words it will output it to any bibliography tool.

Note: the Mozilla addons site is currently experiencing difficulties. If this plugin sounds like it's right for you, try again later.

Nice.

Posted by Dennis Bennett at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Queer History Month may have come and gone, but the struggle surrounding providing basic human rights to our friends, sons, daughters, lovers, and (most importantly) for ourselves has not.

I read a pre-election poll today that said that 57% of the voting public supports some form of gay marriage or civil union. That's heartening. But the cold reality, the stark truth, informing today's Bizzaro comic reminds us that we have still have so far to go.

--Peridyd

Posted by Dennis Bennett at 07:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)