All your rights are belong to us.

This is just getting worse and worse. First there's the wiretapping bill (which thankfully looks like it will die), now this. There's a lot of uninformed opinions on this one, but the gist of it is that Congress has approved military tribunals for "enemy combatants", with no rights of habeus corpus, and no limits on detention length severity of punishment. In fact the bill specifically states that no Federal court has the power to hear habeus corpus cases!

This effectively gives the Executive Branch judical power over anyone they label a terrorist, with no oversight by the 200+ year-old US court system. And US Citizens? Yup, they are also included, though they retain their habeus corpus rights.

We've never done this before. The terrorist that bombed the WTC in 1993 was tried in a Federal Court. The guys behind the Oklahoma City bombing were tried in a Federal court. Now they fall under this new category where everything is controlled by the military, which is part of the Executive Branch and answers to the President. Which means one branch is now judge, jury, and executioner.

I hate the current state of this country. Every day the people of American let more and more of their rights be eroded and taken away, all in the name of security. You know what's really frightening? This has happened before. In the 1940s. In Germany. Care to take a guess of whom I am speaking? Correct. Hitler set up the People's Court to handle those accused of political criminal offences. It was established after a terrorist attack on Germany known as the Reichstag fire. It had the appearance of a court, but it nothing more than a facade to facilitate the elimination of people that Hitler deemed troublesome. Most were executed or imprisoned, including people as young as 17 and college students who distributed anti-war material.

How long before a direct attack on the Bill of Rights itself? "We can't have 'terrorists' pleading the 5th, so we better get rid of that one." Or "If we have a public trial, it might be a terrorist target so we better have the trials in secret." Or even "Ah hell! We KNOW their guilty! They're TERRORISTS after all! So let's just skip the whole trial thing and kill 'em."



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Somebody set us up the sex bomb!

A little g33k poetry courtesy of Bash.org:

WallJam7: roses are red
WallJam7: violets are blue
WallJam7: all of my base
WallJam7: are belong to you

Breathtaking hi-res Okami Wallpapers

Who knew a video game could be this beautiful? These are works of art! I'm tempted to print a few out with a super high-quality photo printer and get them framed.

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Geek/Nerd/Dork quiz

Modern, Cool Nerd 56 % Nerd, 78% Geek, 34% Dork

For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd. Nerds didn't use to be cool, but in the 90's that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn't quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and "geek is chic." The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)! Congratulations! Also, you might want to check out some of my other tests if you're interested in any of the following: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Professional Wrestling Love & Sexuality America/Politics Thanks Again! -- THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 57% on nerdiness You scored higher than 97% on geekosity You scored higher than 56% on dork points

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on OkCupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

What are they teaching those ASU girls?

Via Overheard In the Office:

Coed #1: He had told me not to do anything special for his birthday. He said to forget he was having a birthday at all. But then he came over, and I could tell that he was down.
Coed #2: Because it was his birthday, and he was thirty.
Coed #1: Yeah.
Coed #2: And he's dating an eighteen-year-old.
Coed #1: Shut up. So then we had sex? And it wasn't, like, the most amazing time, but I faked it. But, like, really over the top? And he was happy the rest of the day!

University & College Avenues
Tempe, Arizona

Honda Fit Tetris Commercial

Honda + Tetris = Awsome geek commercial goodness



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It's Showtime...

...and it's about FUCKING time too. Recently Apple sent out invitations to the press to attend a special keynote address by Steve "Reality Distortion Field" Jobs at the Paris Apple Expo. The invitations simply read "It's Showtime."

Apple has been slacking on product announcements for awhile now. Sure the Nano was cool and the transition to Intel was a much-appreciated speed boost (and one step closer to unifying personal computing), but we haven't seen anything truely exciting or ground-breaking from the Cupertino folks in a long time. iPod Hi-Fi? Nike+iPod? Fun, but please; these are toys.

To be fair, Josh does have a Hi-Fi and while I still think it's overpriced, it does sound pretty damn good, even on batteries. But the point is that nothing really new has come out of Apple for awhile. So when rumors started swirling about a special event on Sept. 12th, the Mac forums lit up with rampant speculation and wild claims. Everything from a Windows Media Center killer, to the iTunes Movie Store, to the fabled "widescreen iPod" and even the near mythical iPhone is being touted as the big announcement.

Well if you filter out all the craziness, most people agree that this is the most likely list of things being introduced:

• Updated iPod Nano - Up to 8GB, metal shell, multiple colors (wait...where have I seen this before?)
  
• iTunes Movie Store - Kinda self-explanatory, but own or rent?
  
• Core 2 Duo - Replacing of the Core Duos with Core 2 Duos in the iMac and MacBook lines
• 23" iMac - Better, faster, stronger
• Mac Mini Refresh - Core Solo getting the axe, Core Duos for both models
• Updated 5th gen iPods - Same price point, but with 40 and 80GB drives
• And one more thing...

Pretty good lineup for a special event. Just about everything seems to be revolving around making a Mac and an iPod the center of your music AND movie experience. But still, nothing revolutionary right?

Wrong.

On Sept. 5th, with no warning, annoucement, or fanfare (and completely surprising, well, EVERYONE), Apple released all new iMacs with Core 2 Duo processers, added a 24" iMac that is HD-capable (i.e. 1080p), reduced the price of the two smaller models, AND refreshed the Mac Mini line while keeping the same price point. Whoa. Oh and did I mention that the 24" iMac is now VESA-compliant? Meaning you can mount it on the wall like any modern plasma or LCD HDTV. And at 24", it's ready to be a prime HD-capable entertainment device.

It's interesting to note that every previous annoucement of new or updated Intel-based Macs was done at either a special event or a normal expor like MacWorld or WWDC. Which begs the question: What could possibly be happening on the 12th that an update of TWO entire computer lines, AND the introduction of a completely new model was deemed too minor to warrant sharing the stage with this unknown annoucement? Whatever it is, it's BIG. Like possibly the biggest thing Apple has done since, well possibly the iPod.

I mean when you have a special event to introduce a battery-powered boombox and an FM tuner and NOTHING ELSE, stiffing the new 24" iMac of anything less than the full Steve Jobs-black-turtleneck-and-jeans treatment means that something is happening that has been in the works for a long time. Something that could be incredible. Something that should have EVERY company in the ENTIRE digital entertainment business SCARED SHITLESS.