@trefry.net

Shutting down my other sites

michael — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:47:00 GMT

After years of neglect, I am shutting down OnTheSoapbox.net and CustomCommunity.org

CustomCommunity.org is being shut down because it is no longer the focus of my business and has not been since I partnered with the guys at Four Roads over a year and a half ago. So if you are still looking for customization to Community Server, we are still at it, alive and well. Please visit us at http://4-roads.com

OnTheSoapbox.net never took off, at all, and with only one regular blogger besides myself, and no activity in the last six months, it became more of a hassle to manage than it was worth. Maybe someday, I'll redesign it and bring it back, but for now, it's going offline.

This site, remains, and while I have also been neglecting it, I will be trying to keep the updates a bit more regular. It's an exciting political time right now, and I have been far too quiet!

So a thanks to Leerz for keeping OnTheSoapbox active for a while, your contributions were much appreciated and enjoyed!

Mike Trefry

National Day of the Cowboy

michael — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:37:00 GMT

On February 13, 2008 Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz) introduced new legislation to the House to honor cowboys.

From American Progress Action's Progress Report:

Some bipartisan cooperation in Congress. Roll Call reports that both parties are "rallying to a common cause and introducing a bipartisan bill designating July 26, 2008, as 'National Day of the Cowboy.' The legislation, which Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) introduced Feb. 13, honors the 'pioneering men and women, known as cowboys.'" Giffords's spokesman noted, "Who can disagree about the importance of cowboys?"

Great! The Republicans and Democrats can agree on something! After all, "Who can disagree about the importance of cowboys?" right?

Well, I honestly don't know much about cowboys outside of what I've learned from American Westerns, but weren't cowboys somewhat instrumental in the the genocide of American Indians?

Aside from that, my biggest question, is WHY???

Doesn't Congress have more important things to be doing than creating a "National Day" of this or that? What about health care, the war in Iraq, keeping George Bush in check, ensuring there is no immunity for private companies who overstep the law, waht about investigating the literally THOUSANDS of instances of overeaching authority on the part of this administration?

Is this what we elect these people for?

I'm looking for a complete rollover of elected officials this fall. For all democrats out there, I urge you, if there is a democratic candidate up against a democratic incumbant, please for for the challenger. We need to send Congress a message. We are sick of this, We want things done, and if you can't do it, we'll find someone who can!!

Disclaimer: Of course there are exceptions. I'm not suggesting that you blindly vote just anybody new into office. If your representative is a good representative and is doing their best to fight for the people, or if the challenger is shady, vote your conscience.

Quit Smoking with Magnetic Therapy

michael — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:32:00 GMT

Those of you who know me, or have read some of the older posts in my blog, know that I am somewhat of a skeptic. I am also a recovering smoker. I still struggle with occassionally having a cigarette from time to time, but it has been almost almost 3 years since I have been a full time smoker.

In quiting I tried everything. Nocotine gum, patches, anti-anxiety medication, counseling, etc... The only thing that ever took the edge off for me, was the gum. The problem is that it's just trading one source for another, and hence, I still chew Nicorrette to this day. I can't seem to actualy cut back on both. It's one or the other.

The problem is that while my lungs feel better, Nicorrette is more expensive than cigarettes, and who knows what it will do to my mouth and gums over the long run!

So when I ran accross this advertisement in a local mailer, the title understandably puiqed my curiosity.

Quit Smoking! with ZeroSmoke.

The All-Natural Treatment System for Smoking Dependence Using Magnetic Therapy.

Hold up. Magnetic therapy? For smoking? I've heard of all sorts of crazy ideas with magnetic therapy, but this is the first I've heard of using it to assist in quiting smoking. I'm tempted to immediately dismiss it, but something draws me to continue reading, looking for an explanation to how this could possibly work.

You can do it! You can quite smoking in as little as 30 days with ZeroSmoke, the revolutionary natural treatment that uses two biomagnets to exert a magnetic field that helps reduce and inhibit the desire to smoke. Just place the pressure applying biomagnets on either side of the ear to activate the body's neurotransmitters and produce endorphins. It's that easy. There are no pills, no gums, no patches. Non-allergenic. One kit lasts a lifetime.

Only $39.95

Wow! That sure sounds impressive! But wait. What is a biomagnet? Is that any different than a regular magnet? It says that it exerts a magnetic field, but so do refrigerator magnets. Shouldn't a biomagnet exert a biomagnetic field? And just how does a magnetic field help you stop smoking? Oh yeah, it activates the body's neurotransmitters to produce endorphins.

Ok, so if we break it down, there are 4 basic premises that we are asked to accept here.

These biomagnets are special and worth $39.95.
Magnetic fields activate neurotransmitters. Or is it the pressure applied by the biomagnets? The do leave that possibility open. Perhaps this isn't magnetic therapy at all, but accupressure? Is it the pressure applied to the ear that activates the neurotransmitters, or the magnetic field, or is it a combination of the two?
Activated neurotransmitters produce endorphins.
Our body's endorphins help reduce dependency on smoking. - It doesn't exactly state this, but it must be surmised, because that is the end result of the biomagnets, and if the endorphins didn't help to reduce dependency on smoking, what would be the point?

Working backwards, let's examine each of these, because if the end result isn't sound, we can dismiss all claims leading up to it.

4. Our body's endorphins help to reduce smoking dependency.

Scientifically speaking endorphins are opiods, meaning they produce a morphine-like effect, to kill pain or induce a feeling of euphoria. In fact, this is the same process that occurs when you smoke. Smoking increases your brains release of endorphins, which is what causes the euphoric feeling a smoker gets when smoking for the first time, or after a long break from smoking.

So, I suppose I can accept the premise that if you can replace the endorphins released by smoking with endorphins released by some other activity or source, this would reduce cravings. As a matter of fact, there are many ways to release endorphins into your brain. Long distance running, sprinting, high risk activities, certain foods, even sex.

The problem is that an endorphin high is short lived and is in itself addictive. Smokers may be familiar with the post -meal smoke, the post-coital smoke, and having a smoke after a thrilling activity. This is simply to draw out the length of that endorphin high, just to make it last a little bit longer.

The bottom line, is that by replacing one endorphin promoting substance with another, you are not stopping the addiction, you are simply replacing one source with another. But the claim is that endorphins can reduce dependency on smoking, and while I cannot say that this is absolutely true, I will call the claim reasonable.

3. Activated neurotransmitters produce endorphins.

To evaluate this claim, it is important to understand exactly what a neurotransmitter is. A neurotransmitter is a chemical located and released in the brain that allows signals (impulses) to pass from one nerve cell to another. These impulses are passed from one neuron to the next by way of an Axon, which is a thin cellular structure acting almost as a wire to connect the two. At the end of this wire is the Axon Terminal which branches into several Synaptic Knobs, but the synaptic knobs don't actually connect to the neighboring neuron, so to pass the impulse on, it must do so chemically, by releasing the chemical neurotransmitters into the Synaptic Cleft (the space between the Synaptic Knob and the Synapse), which are picked up by receptors on the Synapses of the recieving nueron.

So in essence, a neurotransmitter is simply a chemical carrying information from one neuron to another.

A few neurotransmitters you may have heard of are seratonin, dopamine, and norpinepherine, but perhaps you didn't realize that endorphin is in itself a neurotransmitter.

So if endorphins are neurotransmitters what does it mean for a neurotransmitter to produce endorphins? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's a meaningless sentence constructed to sound scientific while containing absolutely no meaning whatsoever. This kind of language is commonplace in the world of psuedo-science and in itself makes this product suspect of scammery.

But let's move on ...

2. Magnetic fields activate neurotransmitters

This claim wasn't as clear as the others, so I'll try to be as fair as possible. Since the advertisement didn't directly state that it was the magnetic field that activated the neurotransmitters, and left it open to the possibility that it was the pressure created by the magnets, I'll cover both cases.

a. The effect of magnetism on the human brain is something that has been studied extensively, exhaustively, thouroughly. While it has yet to be determined if there is a level of magnetism that could effect the brain in any way, it is quite obvious that even high levels of magnetism have virtually NO effect. Consider an MRI machine. The magnetic field created by an MRI machine is intense. If any magnetic field could release endorphins in the brain, it would be the field created by an MRI. Yet there seems to be a definitely lack of people addicted to MRI. There is no research anywhere to suggest that magnetic fields have any influence on brain chemistry at all, much less the magnetic field output by such a tiny magnet as pictured in the advertisement. I think this can be safely dismissed.

b. But what about pressure? The advertisement implies that there is pressure caused by placing two magnets, one on either side of the ear. There are many similar products that have in the past made suggestions that acupressure point on the ear can help with weight loss and quiting smoking. One such product was the Acu-Stop 2000 which in 1995 was shut down by the FTC for making unsubstantiated claims and had to pay out $50,000 in refunds. The simple fact of the matter is that there is NO effect of acupressure on the ear to reduce any sort of cravings, whether they be appetite, or addiction.

So again it seems as if they are using scientific sounding terms that in reality mean nothing. The magnets aren't going to activate endorphin neurotransmitters, and the accupressure is highly suspect as well.

However, in keeping with the theme of releasing endorphins, there is one scenario in which I can imagine this product would work. If the pressure created by magnets was sufficiently strong to cause pain, it could quite possibly release endorphins.

But is that realy what you want? Why not carry around a thumbtack and poke yourself everytime you're craving a ciggarette?

1. These biomagnets are special and worth $39.95.

Lastly we tackle the implication that these magnets are any different from a refrigerator magnet. Of course they don't actually make that claim, but they use the term "biomagnet". If you are interested in what exactly a "biomagnet" is, you could refer to the Foundation for Magnetic Science which, I must warn you, while it contains the word "Science" in it's name, is nothing of the sort. This site is full of some of the most outrageous claims for magnetic therapy I have ever seen in my life. You really should read the disclaimer that they place at the bottom of the page. Sorry, I'm getting off topic here.

By definition biomgnetism is the magnetic field given off by all living beings. The field is small, very, very small, but it is there, and can be measured. So in essence, you are a biomagnet, I am a biomagnet, my dog is a bio magnet. But a magnet made of even rare-earth metals, is NOT a biomagnet.

In fact, many of these products claim to be "Rare-earth" biomagnets, giving them that sound of something special. This in fact simply refers to the magnets being made of Neodymium, a "rare earth metal" that dipite the name is not rare at all. It is present in microphones, speakers, headphones, guitars and computer hard drives, and yes even some refrigerator magnets. You can purchase these magnets from a science surplus store for about $2.95 each.

The bottom line is that this is just another one of those magnetic therapy products that is cashing in on the ignorance of the public. The use of scientific sounding words used in a definitively non-scientific context has been successfully employed against the public for centuries to sell any variety of snake oil.

Please, if you see a product that you think might help you with a particular ailment. Research it. If the cure contains a magnet and little else, you should be immediately skeptical.

CS Media Gallery

michael — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:30:00 GMT

Well, now that the Beta for CS 2008 is out, I can safely point out a feature that is remarkabley reminicent of a suggestion I gave nearly two years ago.

http://trefry.net/blogs/michael/archive/2006/07/13/649.aspx

I am of course referring to the new Media Gllery.

I would just like to point out the following quote from the above linked post:

My thought was that the File Gallery could be made to be so much more. Why limit it to just downloadable files? We could even do away with the photo gallery and just move the functionality into the File Gallery. Make it an all encompassing Media Gallery.

Hmmm... where is the Photo gallery now? Where is the File Gallery now? They are conspicuously missing. Replaced by something called Media Gallery.

I believe I may be owed some royalties or at least some credit!

Gotta love them Televangelists

michael — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 23:45:00 GMT

Whooeeeh! There was Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Paul Crouch, Ted Haggard, an now … Richard Roberts!

Richard Roberts son of Oral Roberts and current President of the Oral Roberts University is fighting a number of allegations regarding misuse of funds acquired through donations to the University, a number of which point to questions of impropriety on the part of the Missus.

Of course Mr. Roberts is denying all of these allegations, not necessarily because he didn’t do any of it, but because God told him to. I love that God can take time out of his busy schedule ignoring the prayers of sick little girls to give legal advice to corrupt televangelists.

Check out this list of allegations: (From AP news)

• A longtime maintenance employee was fired so that an underage male friend of Mrs. Roberts could have his position.
• Mrs. Roberts — who is a member of the board of regents and is referred to as ORU's "first lady" on the university's Web site — frequently had cell-phone bills of more than $800 per month, with hundreds of text messages sent between 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. to "underage males who had been provided phones at university expense."
• The university jet was used to take one daughter and several friends on a senior trip to Orlando, Fla., and the Bahamas. The $29,411 trip was billed to the ministry as an "evangelistic function of the president."
• Mrs. Roberts spent more than $39,000 at one Chico's clothing store alone in less than a year, and had other accounts in Texas and California. She also repeatedly said, "As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it off." The document cites inconsistencies in clothing purchases and actual usage on TV.
• Mrs. Roberts was given a white Lexus SUV and a red Mercedes convertible by ministry donors.
• University and ministry employees are regularly summoned to the Roberts' home to do the daughters' homework.
• The university and ministry maintain a stable of horses for exclusive use by the Roberts' children.
• The Roberts' home has been remodeled 11 times in the past 14 years.

Roberts said God told him: "We live in a litigious society. Anyone can get mad and file a lawsuit against another person whether they have a legitimate case or not. This lawsuit ... is about intimidation, blackmail and extortion."

Yep, God said that.

Quote of the Day

michael — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:43:00 GMT

It's been a very long time since I've done a Quote of the Day, so I thought I'd throw one out there for your contemplation.

I am driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan'. And I did. And then God would tell me 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq'. And I did.
George W. Bush - August 2003

How does this make him any different from the "terrorists" that attack us because Allah commanded it?

Return to Blogging

michael — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:16:00 GMT

Well it’s coming up on a year since I wrote, and I feel pretty bad about that. My only excuse is that since I broke off from the corporate world to work on my own, I’ve been pretty busy.

It’s strange. While I thought that I would have more time to myself, the reality of it was, that my entire waking life was essentially dedicated to this work, which is really sad since I was only getting paid for a fraction of that time.

All that’s gotten somewhat better since I partnered up with 3 other guys to create a new company called 4-Roads, but I still spend a lot of time working and have little time for myself.

The strange part is that any time I’m not working (such as trying to write a blog post or do anything on my own time) I feel bad about it, like I SHOULD be working. It’s a strange dilemma that in many cases ends up with me sitting around intending to work, trying to work, but wishing I was doing something else, anything else, being anywhere else.

I’ve had one of those weeks. A complete inability to focus on working. So today rather than wasting the entire day away, I figured maybe I should actually do that something else and just get it out the way so maybe I can refocus on working.

Will it work? I don’t know. Maybe I’m just burnt out. Maybe I’m just tired of the rest of my interests taking a back seat. Maybe I need to get a corporate job again. I miss working, socializing, and communicating with people face to face. On the other hand I really like working in t-shirt, shorts and bare feet J

Anyway, I’m going to make a concerted effort to give a little more attention to this little corner of mine, just in case anyone is still paying attention.

Is anyone there? Anyone?

New Host (Yet Again!)

michael — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 22:22:00 GMT

My websites were down today for a few hours because of a recent move away from ASPnix to my own dedicated server hosted with CrystalTech.

I seem to have been doing this moving thing a lot over the last couple of years, but now that I've reached the pancea of dedicated hosting (and for a fairly reasonable price) I'm hoping to stay here for a good long time.

And with better control over my server and nobody to share it with, I'm hoping that stability will be better as well.

I'm also thinking of offering hosting on this server to some of my smaller clients who make due with shared hosting now, and may be interested in a smaller amount of sites sharing a single box.

Just an idea I'm still working on.

Get Out The Vote

michael — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 15:09:16 GMT

Today is the big day! I know it’s just mid-terms, but this is, I think, the most important mid-term election in my lifetime. It’s kind of exciting. (I know, elections, exciting?)

But here in Connecticut, we’ve got one the highest profile elections in the country. It’s an age old story: man challenges man, man beats man in primaries, sore loserman, runs off and registers as an independent where he takes the lead in the polls and may just win, even though the dumb-ass should have conceded his loss 3 months ago.

Well, not if I can help it.

If you haven’t voted yet, or you were not planning to vote, I urge you. Go out and vote. It’s one of our simplest civic duties, and the one time that we have a chance to say who we want running our government, and who we don’t want running our government.

For most in my area it’s quick and easy, but I’d wait in line for 6 hours to do it.

Just Do It!

Although, if you’re a republican it’s not required

Published with blogmailr

Double-Super-Secret Blog Posting

michael — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 02:34:00 GMT

A new tool to be released in the very near future is allowing me to make this post directly from my email. In this case Outlook.

Can you guess what it is?

Published with blogmailr

Who Killed the Electric Car?

michael — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 04:09:00 GMT

Not me!

After watching the movie, and being exposed, for the very first time, to the radical idea of converting a conventional car to an electric car, my girlfriend and I were inspired to give it a try.

So after researching a bit about how this might be done, I've found that there has been a LOT of electric conversions done by average people.

Check out this site http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/. These are regular cars (and other interesting vehicles built or converted to EVs (electric vehicles). I wanted one!

So when building and electric car, the first thing to consider is what you want out of it. Do you just want something to get you around town, something to haul the kids in.

Well, I've got two cars already, if you've seen my photos, you've seen the 88 BMW. I also have a 2002 Ford Explorer, which I drive as little as possible because it costs soooo much to fuel it, and also because as I become more and more environmentally conscious, I feel more and more guilty about driving it. But I'm really hesitant to get rid of it because there are times when it comes in really handy.

So my choice was convert one of my existing vehicles or start with a new one. Well, the Explorer is out, the vehicle is too heavy and would require too much power to move. The BMW is my baby and I really don't want to go down the road of converting it only to screw it up and be left with something undrivable.

For the same reasons that the Explorer was out, one of the considerations in building an EV is the weight of the car. Another thing to consider when you have as little knowledge or experience about EVs as I do, is learning from the experience of others.

With all those considerations, and the one most important consideration of all, style, I settled on the Porsche 914. It's light, it's been done before, and it looks damn good!

So without further ado, let me introduce you to my future EV.

YES! That is green! Ravena Green to be exact, a perfectly fitting color for a future "green" machine.

The project will most likely not kick off until spring time. Until then I've got to do a lot of reading and start collecting the parts and equipment necessary for the conversion.

Once the conversion begins I'll be documenting it step by step to let everyone who might be interested know how it's going.

Until then, I've got a pretty new fun toy to drive around

New Software for CommunityServer 2.1

michael — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 02:40:00 GMT

Ok, so I know I keep switching around where I'm officially hosting my downloads, but this is it, this is final, I SWEAR!

All my new stuff is now over at http://customcommunity.org which just so happens to be the web site for my new company Custom Community Systems, which specializes in ... you guessed it, services and software for Community Server.

So what's over there now? Good question, I'm glad I asked!

Custom Community Registration Addin for CS 2.1 and ASP.NET 2.0, most of you will know what this is.

And the same thing updated and fresh for CS 2.0, gotta keep it backward compatible, right?

Also, a little something to fix a problem with galleries when upgrading to CS 2.1. Ok, this is my fault (although not entirely), and only applicable if you were using Trefry.CS 2.0 to create your galleries.

And last, but certainly not least, a little something I'm very excited about, the Custom Community TinyMCE Speller (BETA). This little gem adds awesome spell checking capabilities to the TinyMCE editor now used by Community Server 2.1.

That's all for now, but there will be more in the near future, including some of those Modules that were packaged into Trefry.CS 2.0, but are now missing for 2.1.

Enjoy!

Blogging from Word 2007

michael — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:44:00 GMT

I just found out about this feature of Microsoft Word 2007 (beta 2), so I had to try it out.

For the most part you can ignore this post, if it works, you’ll know it’s a pretty cool feature. If it look like junk, you’ll know it still needs work

Resume of George W. Bush

michael — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 13:32:00 GMT

I recieved this by email from a co-worker and thought it was a wonderful run-down of our current president and his administration.

However, because I refuse to be part of the chain-mail problem, I won't forward this to every voter that I know. Instead I'll just place it here for your perusal.

Slight disclaimer, in case I get heat from some of you conservatives out there. I'll be the first to admit that a couple of the items below are trumped up. You can hardly blame the man for the immediate economic recession and job loss after his inauguration. It was a result of the .com bubble and the subsequent slide in the tech market. However, the continued economic troubles, are certainly a direct result of his failed policies.

Still, I'm posting this, knowing that it's 98% accurate. So please, read and enjoy, or rather, have a good long cry.

Resume

GEORGE W. BUSH 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20520

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

LAW ENFORCEMENT

I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine , in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been "lost" and is not available.

MILITARY

I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam

COLLEGE

I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a cheerleader.

PAST WORK EXPERIENCE

I ran for U.S. Congress and lost. I began my career in the oil business in Midland, Texas, in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.

I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. With the help of my father and our friends in the oil industry, including Enron CEO Ken Lay, I was elected governor of Texas.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS

I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union.

During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America.

I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money.

I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history.

With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida, and my father's appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President after losing by over 500,000 votes.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT

I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.

I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week.

I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.

I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.

I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.

I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.

I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market.

In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.

I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. My "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice, had a Chevron oil tanker named after her.

I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President. I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations.

My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. History, Enron.

My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision.

I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution.

More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip- offs in history.

I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.

I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.

I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.

I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any President in U.S. history.

I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States government.

I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history.

I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.

I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law. I refused to allow inspectors access to U.S . "prisoners of war" detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.

I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election).

I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any President since the advent of television.

I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.

I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history.

I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind.

I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and the world community.

I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families-in-wartime.

In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends.
I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.

I am supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical Bunker Buster," a WMD. I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden [sic] to justice.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES

All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father's library, sealed and unavailable for public view.

All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review. I am a member of the Republican Party.

PLEASE CONSIDER MY EXPERIENCE WHEN VOTING IN THE 2006 MIDTERM ELECTIONS. PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERY VOTER YOU KNOW

Announcing Custom Community Systems

michael — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 19:34:00 GMT

I’ve posted a couple times about my wanting to take my part-time business full-time and the responses, while few, were encouraging.

Well, I’ve made the decision, I’ve given notice, there’s no turning back now. Starting September 1st, Custom Community Systems, LLC will be a live full-time business for me.

The decision essentially came down to me being unable to support the clients I have, due to lack of time. I’ve spent the last year building a client base that I fear I may start to slowly lose because of my inability to warp time and create a 32 hour day. I thought for sure that we’d have that technology by now, but alas, no such luck.

I hope that my current clients can bear this out with me, and I aim to provide the best quality work, and fast response for each and every one of you in the future.

In the coming 6 weeks, I’ll be building out my company web-site and collaborating with others to try and build out development teams where needed.

Thank you to those who have provided the encouragement I needed to take this step.

CS Galleries - Just a thought

michael — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:17:00 GMT

I've done a few projects now where the client wanted a video gallery and wasn't happy with the video support built into CS. I have to admit that adding videos in CS is cumbersome, and if you want to make a specific gallery you have to commit a forum to it, create a custom aggregate page, and just kind of fake the whole thing out.

One of the solutions that I came up with was customizing the file gallery to work as a video gallery. It works great, you get all the benefits of the fine grained permissions of the file gallery, the multiple nested folders. Videos can be uploaded directly through the browser window, instead of or in addition to FTP. I've even added support for automatic thumbnail generation of formats that are supported by windows explorer thumbnails.

The downside is that it's a lot of code change, the source of which is not available to the general public and you are bound by the limitation of your CS license within the File Gallery.

My thought was that the File Gallery could be made to be so much more. Why limit it to just downloadable files? We could even do away with the photo gallery and just move the functionality into the File Gallery. Make it an all encompassing Media Gallery.

You could setup a folder, specify what file types are allowed, be they videos, photos, or documents or zip files. The Entry Viewer would handle the display appropriately.

Those root "group" folders that don't really make a whole lot of sense as they are used now, could be used instead to break these galleries out to personal galleries, and behave much like the Photo gallery does today. They could be used to break the galleries up into multiple tabs, so you could have a photo gallery tab, a video gallery tab, an audio gallery tab, however you want to configure it.

One of the things I'm working on now is a Media Player that will handle whatever type of file you throw at it and render an appropriate display. If it doesn't understand they file type (which are configurable) it defaults to just rendering a download link.

In my opinion, something like this could make CS more flexible and agile to the needs of it's customers.

Just a thought.

The Slow Deliberate March

michael — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 18:08:00 GMT

Time seems to move a lot faster these days. I don’t know if it’s the amount of chaos going on in my life these days, or if it’s the run-up to summer (oh wait, you mean it’s here already!). But the fact is, the last few months have flown by for me, and I hardly had time to sleep, much less stop to think clearly enough to write a coherent post. Speaking of sleep, wouldn’t it be much better if it weren’t necessary? I could gain an extra 6 hours a day to accomplish the things I want to do. (Yes, I’ve already stolen 2 or so hours from that naggingly necessary third of my life). So I’d like to thank my friend Leerz for keeping OnTheSoapbox active with her postings. She’s an excellent writer, and sees things from a slightly different perspective than most of us, and if you haven’t read her writings I encourage you to do so at Insight, Inspiration and Indignation.

But no matter how fast time is moving for me these days, it doesn’t seem fast enough to get us to 2008. (Yes, this is a political post ladies and gentlemen)

So as it turns out, not only is the bush Administration spying on our phone calls, they are collecting our phone records, and as revealed last Friday, also collecting our bank records. I guarantee you that it doesn’t stop there. I’d like to throw out as well, that your Credit Card purchases, medical records, emails, web surfing habits, probably even location via cell phone, OnStar, even those convenient little devices you use for EZPass, or FastLane or whatever they call it in your area, are all being collected archived and data-mined.

It just hasn’t become public yet.

I was discussing this with an acquaintance who tends to lean slightly to the left, when he came out with the tired old argument of “well, if you’ve got nothing to hide, what does it matter?” He went on to say that the government wasn’t interested in him, his data was just collateral noise in the mining for specific parameters related to terrorism. For all we know, that may be true, for the moment.

But it’s not about whether a person has something to hide. It’s not about supporting the war on terror. It’s about the law. It’s about the erosion of our civil liberties. The Bush Administration has consistently an unapologetically trampled on our Constitution’s 4^th Amendment. They have no legal right to collect this information on ANYONE, terrorist or not, without probable cause and without a court ordered search warrant.

If you think this is a minor inconvenience, and it won’t affect you, think about this. How much of a stretch is it from collecting your private and personal records without a warrant, to bashing down your door and entering your home, without probable cause, without a warrant. The Supreme Court just recently ruled that police do not have to knock and announce themselves.

If you think this all isn’t a slow and deliberate march to an authoritarian, police state, think again.

I’m not one for conspiracy theories. I think that the dolts who proclaim that 9/11 was orchestrated by our own government, are plainly insane. But there is clearly an agenda. It’s the agenda of a small minority of powerful and wealthy cronies to make them and their friends more powerful and more wealthy, all at the expense of the American Citizen. They do this by spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt). With the help of certain popular media outlets, they demonize those who are actually looking to protect the future and freedom of Americans, while slowly eroding the very virtues that has made America great, all while claiming to protect those very virtues with this invented “War on Terror”. Does anyone still think there were terrorist ties in Iraq?

(Community Server related) I want to run this by you

michael — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 15:13:00 GMT

The words "I've been busy" do not even begin to describe what I've been up to. Yet, it still just sounds like an excuse.

Well, today's post is not about politics or religion (not that there hasn't been plenty going on to talk about!), it's about my other favorite subject, Technology, specifically Community Server. The wonderful product that runs this site and has been supplementing my income by way of consulting for nearly a year now.

I mentioned that I was thinking about going full time in my consulting services for Community Server because I thought that there was a market for it. Well, there certainly is, and that decision is 90% made and the day is fast approaching when I will begin doing business under the name of my new company (to be announce shortly) instead of as a simple part-time independant consultant.

Now, I have a few questions for the fine folks that use this product (as you make up a good 50% of my audience)

I know now that there are plenty of people willing to pay and pay well for Community Server Services, but I don't want to cut out the small businesses and upstart non-profit/hobbyist communities by charging more than they can afford. So I'm looking at providing a service where projects of all sizes and budgets can be taken and if not myself, sub-contracted out to experienced and professional CS Developers with the time and availability to take the project at the negotiated rate.

Are there developers with the desire to take part in such work? I can't promise steady full-time work, but certainly occasional supplemental income, at least to start.
Charging for services is at the least expected, but in the Community Server community, as with any other cumminty supported system, there is an expectation of free software. There are always community contributors who in their spare time develop custom add-ins, skins, modules etc... I myself have done so, and will continue to do so when I have the time.

But what about charging for professional add-ins, modules and applications? Say for instance someone developed a fully featured calendar application that supported personal calendars, community calendars, recurrences, email reminders, importing, exporting, all the things you would expect from a professional application. Would you be willing to pay for that? What about professionally developed skins?

It worked for DotNetNuke, I don't see why it wouldn't for CommunityServer, and I think that if there was a potential for profit, you would see a lot more custom development happening around CommunityServer.
Finally, I'm toying with the idea of writing a technical manual for CommunityServer. I've been asked on many occasions if I could write a skinning document covering the basics of skinning CommunityServer. This is something I could do, if I had the time. Well, with the move to self-employment, I'm thinking I'll have more time (I could just be fooling myself here) and would like to pursue that, but going beyond that, I would like to write out a full manual on not only skinning, but writing your own controls, writing CSModules, even writing full featured applications on top of the CS "Post model".

As with all of the above, this would be a money making venture (hey, a guy's got to support himself somehow!). Would a detailed book on the inner workings of Community Server, and a complete how-to guide be something that you folks would be willing to pay for?

I of course would release the first Part of the book, covering basic and intermediate skinning, for free :)

That's about it. I'm really excited about this, there is nothing more that I would like to do, than to make my living working with a product I love and use. I know there are others that feel the same way.

So I welcome all input from developers and customers alike.

Since I've been gone ...

michael — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 12:26:00 GMT

Wow, a lot of time has passed since I last posted. I’m sorry to everyone who checks the site daily or waits impatiently for their news aggregator to show a new post and has been sorely disappointed for day after day after day. (There must be at least one of you out there!) Ok, so maybe nobody cares that much, but I continue to get visitors, so that’s a good sign.

Ok, once again let’s do a little catch up … since I last posted …

The vice president shot his lawyer in the face, that was fun.

We almost sold a bunch of ports to Dubai, which although was bad judgment, it wouldn’t have made much difference if the deal went through, our security is shit anyway, but at least it served the purpose of opening the eyes of America to the fact that our port security IS shit, and how sneaky and underhanded this administration is.

Browny turned coat and exposed the apathy of the administration during Katrina, meanwhile a video-tape surfaced proving that the President and FEMA knew how disastrous things could get in New Orleans, was told the levees could likely break, and promised all the help they needed in a timely basis. So when two days after the hurricane hit he said he didn’t know how bad things were and that no one could have anticipated the breach of the levees, he was … surprise … LYING!

Tom Delay indicted and resigned … Yipeee!

Jack Abrahmoff convicted … Yipeee!

Duke Cunningham convicted … Yipeee!

Ughhh … and all this talk about immigration reform and what to do with 11 million people. Does anyone else wonder why this issue all of a sudden became so explosively hot? What kind of trickery and misdirection is the administration pulling now? What is it that we are being distracted from while everyone argues over whether or not we should kick illegals out. (a complicated mess that I’m not willing to chime in on until I’ve really thought about it). This is a topic that has been largely ignored for over 20 years. Sure it warrants some discussion, but why now? And why in such grand display? There’s something else going on, mark my words.

I’m sure I missed something, there’s been too much to keep up with. The implosion of the Republican party is well under way and I for one couldn’t bee happier to be witnessing it all happen.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about impeachment. Here’s my problem with that … if you oust President Bush, who’s in charge? That’s right, you move from having a leader that is incompetent, to a leader that is pure evil. Eh … so we impeach him too, right? Well, who’s next in line? Will it be impeachments all the way down? I’m all for investigation, unfortunately the committees that oversee these investigations are run by Republicans, so that’s not going to happen at least until after this years elections.

Russ Fiengold (Russ in 2008!) made a motion to Censure the President, which while not impeachment, does make a statement. It may be purely a symbolic slap on the hand, but it says something damnit. And where the hell are those spineless Democrats? Why aren’t they getting in line behind this resolution, so that they at the very least, SAY SOMETHING!!!

And herein lies the problem. The Republicans may be corrupt, they may be liars but they know how to stand together, they can stand for a cause, right or wrong (more often wrong) and get things done. But even in the midst of the conservatives falling apart, amidst all the corruption and scandal, these fucking Democrats STILL can’t get together and agree on anything. We NEED accountability, even if it’s just a symbolic hand slap for now. We NEED to know that our Democratic leaders are going to stand up to the WORST ADMINISTRATION IN HISTORY and tell them … You fucked up, now it’s our turn.

Stuck in indecision

michael — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 13:02:00 GMT

I’m at a cross-roads, a serious moment of indecision, and I’m hoping that I can get some advice, words of encouragement, or a serious dose of reality here.

As many of you know, I’ve been moonlighting as a developer/designer for web sites running CommunityServer for a while now. I have a full-time job, that I love with a great salary and the benefits are amazing. But lately, the number of clients contacting me requesting work for CommunityServer has become overwhelming. I just don’t have enough time in the day to take them all, and as such I’m turning clients away, I think there may be one or two that I haven’t even responded to yet (I’m really sorry guys, I’m trying to keep up). The problem is that there is just too much demand and too little time, and trying to manage that and maintain any level of personal life is becoming a problem.

So I’ve been thinking about the possibility of working for myself. Quitting my job, and focusing on developing my own business. I know several people who would be very happy with that decision. The problem is, that when I started this, it was hobby work, just something to keep a little extra cash in my pockets, no stress, a client would contact me once a month maybe, and as such, I didn’t worry too much about the billing rate, and I undersold myself.

I’ve done the best I could to calculate out what billing rate I would need to better my current salary situation (because let’s face it, why take the risk if you’re not going to be doing better?), including benefits, bonuses, vacations etc., as well as the cost of managing a home-run business, and I’ve come up with a billing rate of close to $100 /hr.

So the question stands, can this niche market bear a billing rate that high? Right now CommunityServer is booming, I mean the growth is seriously crazy, but is it a short term deal? Is all this activity simply because of the new version? Will the work continue to come in once version 2.0 has become ubiquitous?

I have so many questions, so many fears about falling flat on my face, becoming essentially unemployed. But on the other hand, I’ve got enough client requests right now to keep me busy for many, many months ahead. Of course, they are all expecting my old rate. If I upped my rate to $100, how many of those clients would then dry up?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

My name is Michael Trefry

michael — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:03:00 GMT

There ... I'm clear. If any of the content on this website "annoys" you, there's nothing you can do about it!

But for those of you who prefer to remain somewhat anonymous, look out.

Create an e-annoyance, Go to Jail

Buried deep in the new law is Sec. 113, an innocuously titled bit called "Preventing Cyberstalking." It rewrites existing telephone harassment law to prohibit anyone from using the Internet "without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy."

We can thank Republican Sen. Arlen Specter for this little piece of work. So let's just keep electing these defenders of our rights to not be annoyed. What would we do without them?

Oh and to Dave who left a comment calling me an idiot without revealing his full identity ... you're on notice!

Sorry for the lack of posts

michael — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 02:05:00 GMT

Normally I would try to get in at least a couple posts a month, but this last month has been hectic. My side business of customizing CommunityServer for others is booming and I've hardly got time to eat, sleep and lead an otherwise normal life these days.

Then some guy has to comment on my last post and call me an idiot.

Well, everyone has a right to an opinion, or as Stephen Colbert says "Everyone has a right to MY opinion" [:P]

It makes me wonder how some people can look at information like that and still defend the administration. How is it that they still think that Bush has the best interests of the American people at heart?

It's about power, it's about money, it's about greed and generally not giving a shit about the American people at all, nor the damage that it's doing to America in the eyes of the rest of the world.

*Shrugs* But what can I do? I'm just a middle class American nobody with a blog.

Oh and to David who just called me an idiot ... Fuck off!

Today I am Ashamed to be an American

michael — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 01:41:00 GMT

Call me un-patriotic, go ahead. You know you want to.

It’s been pretty obvious to those of us who never liked the guy from the beginning, that when the President gets up in front of the cameras and gives all the same talking points about the War on Terror, protecting the American people at all costs, spreading democracy, liberating an oppressed people from an evil regime etc .. blah, blah, blah … that he’s, well, full of shit. And since the news about the secret torture camps came out, it’s been pretty obvious that he’s one hypocritical, evil bastard himself.

But recently there have been some confidential memos leaked from the UK about Uzbekistan, a Central Asian country where one of these secret prisons was allegedly located. Craig Murray was Britain’s Ambassador to Uzbekistan, and has been speaking out about the atrocities in that country since 2003, when he was threatened by his government that if he didn’t toe the “American Line” he would lose his job.

The memos are posted here at their original location, and a copy at Daily Kos.

Please, Please, Please Read!

As I read through these memos, I became angry, horrified, and ashamed.

I was ashamed because as Americans, we duck our heads in the sand, oblivious to what’s going on in the world around us, oblivious to what’s even going on within our own borders. When something is forced in our face enough that we have to sit up and say “Oh yeah, that’s not good”, we still shrug our shoulders and say “But what can I do?”

We sit idly by while this administration pours hundreds of billions of our tax money into an illegal war, based on lies. We feign outrage at the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, but quickly forget. We don’t care that there are still thousands of foreign prisoners sitting in American run prisons, never to face a jury, possibly never to even be charged, just rotting.

When one of the most culturally unique cities in our country is devastated, partly due to apathy on the part of our own government, we band together, give of our time and money to help our fellow Americans in their time of need, for two weeks, and then quickly go about our lives, our brothers and sisters nothing more than an afterthought while they continue to struggle to rebuild their city, their homes and their lives.

When it comes to the suffering of others, we do everything we can to ignore it or justify it, anything we can to avoid having to take responsibility for it.

Here is one of the memos in full, outlining the relationship of the US with Islam Karimov, the Uzbek President.

Letter #2
Confidential
Fm Tashkent
To FCO

18 March 2003

SUBJECT: US FOREIGN POLICY
SUMMARY

1. As seen from Tashkent, US policy is not much focussed on democracy or freedom. It is about oil, gas and hegemony. In Uzbekistan the US pursues those ends through supporting a ruthless dictatorship. We must not close our eyes to uncomfortable truth.

DETAIL

2. Last year the US gave half a billion dollars in aid to Uzbekistan, about a quarter of it military aid. Bush and Powell repeatedly hail Karimov as a friend and ally. Yet this regime has at least seven thousand prisoners of conscience; it is a one party state without freedom of speech, without freedom of media, without freedom of movement, without freedom of assembly, without freedom of religion. It practices, systematically, the most hideous tortures on thousands. Most of the population live in conditions precisely analogous with medieval serfdom.

3. Uzbekistan's geo-strategic position is crucial. It has half the population of the whole of Central Asia. It alone borders all the other states in a region which is important to future Western oil and gas supplies. It is the regional military power. That is why the US is here, and here to stay. Contractors at the US military bases are extending the design life of the buildings from ten to twenty five years.

4. Democracy and human rights are, despite their protestations to the contrary, in practice a long way down the US agenda here. Aid this year will be slightly less, but there is no intention to introduce any meaningful conditionality. Nobody can believe this level of aid – more than US aid to all of West Africa – is related to comparative developmental need as opposed to political support for Karimov. While the US makes token and low-level references to human rights to appease domestic opinion, they view Karimov's vicious regime as a bastion against fundamentalism. He – and they – are in fact creating fundamentalism. When the US gives this much support to a regime that tortures people to death for having a beard or praying five times a day, is it any surprise that Muslims come to hate the West?

5. I was stunned to hear that the US had pressured the EU to withdraw a motion on Human Rights in Uzbekistan which the EU was tabling at the UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva. I was most unhappy to find that we are helping the US in what I can only call this cover-up. I am saddened when the US constantly quote fake improvements in human rights in Uzbekistan, such as the abolition of censorship and Internet freedom, which quite simply have not happened (I see these are quoted in the draft EBRD strategy for Uzbekistan, again I understand at American urging).

6. From Tashkent it is difficult to agree that we and the US are activated by shared values. Here we have a brutal US sponsored dictatorship reminiscent of Central and South American policy under previous US Republican administrations. I watched George Bush talk today of Iraq and "dismantling the apparatus of terror… removing the torture chambers and the rape rooms". Yet when it comes to the Karimov regime, systematic torture and rape appear to be treated as peccadilloes, not to affect the relationship and to be downplayed in international fora. Double standards? Yes.

7. I hope that once the present crisis is over we will make plain to the US, at senior level, our serious concern over their policy in Uzbekistan.
MURRAY

And some bits from other memos on the treatment of these Uzbek prisoners.

“Between 7,000 and 10,000 political and religious prisoners are currently detained, many after trials before kangaroo courts with no representation. Terrible torture is commonplace: the EU is currently considering a demarche over the terrible case of two Muslims tortured to death in jail apparently with boiling water. Two leading dissidents, Elena Urlaeva and Larissa Vdovna, were two weeks ago committed to a lunatic asylum, where they are being drugged, for demonstrating on human rights.”

“President Karimov has admitted to 100 executions a year but human rights groups believe there are more”

“I have dealt with hundreds of individual cases of political or religious prisoners in Uzbekistan, and I have met with very few where torture, as defined in the UN convention, was not employed”

“At the Khuderbegainov trial I met an old man from Andizhan. Two of his children had been tortured in front of him until he signed a confession on the family's links with Bin Laden. Tears were streaming down his face. I have no doubt they had as much connection with Bin Laden as I do. This is the standard of the Uzbek intelligence services.”

“This is a difficult and dangerous part of the World. Dire and increasing poverty and harsh repression are undoubtedly turning young people here towards radical Islam. The Uzbek government are thus creating this threat, and perceived US support for Karimov strengthens anti-Western feeling”

There is no escaping this, although I’m sure that 90% of America will never hear of these memos, will never even know where Uzbekistan is, much less what is going on there, but for me there is no escaping this.

We as Americans, by putting this President in power, by fucking re-electing him and his entire administration, we are to blame. The blood of those innocently tortured men, women and yes even children, is on our hands.

And the majority of us will never know, and of the ones who do, the majority will shrug their shoulders and say, “but what could I do?” I am ashamed.

It Can't Happen Here

michael — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 23:45:00 GMT

PICTURE THIS: A folksy, self-consciously plainspoken Southern politician rises to power during a period of profound unrest in America. The nation is facing one of the half-dozen or so of its worst existential crises to date, and the people, once sunny, confident, and striving, are now scared, angry, and disillusioned.

This politician, a "Professional Common Man", executes his rise by relentlessly attacking the liberal media, fancy-talking intellectuals, shiftless progressives, pinkos, promiscuity, and welfare hangers-on, all the while clamoring for a return to traditional values, to love of country, to the pie-scented days of old when things made sense and Americans were indisputably American. He speaks almost entirely in ''noble but slippery abstractions''-Liberty, Freedom, Equality-and people love him, even if they can't fully articulate why without resorting to abstractions themselves.

Through a combination of factors-his easy bearing chief among them (along with massive cash donations from Big Business; disorganization in the liberal opposition; a stuffy, aloof opponent; and support from religious fanatics who feel they've been unfairly marginalized)-he wins the presidential election.

Once in, he appoints his friends and political advisers to high-level positions, stocks the Supreme Court with ''surprisingly unknown lawyers who called [him] by his first name,'' declaws Congress, allows Big Business to dictate policy, consolidates the media, and fills newspapers with ''syndicated gossip from Hollywood.'' Carping newspapermen worry that America is moving backward to a time when anti-German politicians renamed sauerkraut ''Liberty Cabbage'' and ''hick legislators...set up shop as scientific experts and made the world laugh itself sick by forbidding the teaching of evolution,'' but newspaper readers, wary of excessive negativity, pay no mind.

Given the nature of ''powerful and secret enemies'' of America-who are ''planning their last charge'' to take away our freedom-an indefinite state of crisis is declared, and that freedom is stowed away for safekeeping. When the threat passes, we can have it back, but in the meantime, citizens are asked to ''bear with'' the president.

Sure, some say these methods are extreme, but the plain folks are tired of wishy-washy leaders, and feel the president's decisiveness is its own excuse. Besides, as one man says, a fascist dictatorship ''couldn't happen here in America...we're a country of freemen!''

. . .

While more paranoid readers might be tempted to draw parallels between this scenario and sundry predicaments we may or may not be in right now, the story line is actually that of Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel ''It Can't Happen Here,'' a hastily written cautionary note about America's potential descent into fascism, recently reissued by New American Library in a handsome trade edition with a blood-spattered cover design.

Wow, Sinclair Lewis saw the future. He saw the signs back in 1935 when the political environment was ripe for a decline to facism, he warned us in very specific language. I didn't happen here then, but it could happen here.

It is happening here, now.

Article Source: Boston Globe via Under No Circumstances

Sinclair Lewis's "It Can't Happen Here" (Amazon) Read the reviews!

Welcoming 2006

michael — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 03:44:00 GMT

Well, 2005 has been one hell of an interesting year. Well, Ok, it’s been one truly fucked up year.

From God’s wrath on the poor heathen Asian countries this time a year ago to the senseless murder of a helpless brain-dead woman, to the introduction of Intelligent Design Creationism to public Schools, to God’s wrath on the sinful city of New Orleans, to the mythical, secular “War on Christmas”, all under-shadowed by a very real war on those evil missionaries of Islam (read terrorists), the religious right has had one hell of a year this year. I can’t remember a time in my admittedly limited life span where Christianity has enjoyed such large support and publicity by media and government. Yet they continue to cry persecution.

Sorry got on a rant there … I’m really trying to reel back the anti-religious stuff, but it’s just sooo difficult!

Additionally we’ve seen the public support for his holy Chimpiness and his pet war dive bomb into near nothingness all the while the Republican Elite are self-imploding in scandal and corruption. (There have been some upsides this year)

We’ve seen human rights violations in spades, civil liberties lost, and traitorous acts all done in the name of protecting the “American People” at any cost.

So I just wanted to take this moment to sit and reflect and say Damn! I’m glad this year is over!

Happy New Year Everyone! Here’s to hoping the coming year brings some sanity back to the world. (It can’t possibly get worse, can it?)