Oops, I did it again: CBS and the Draft Hoax.

Once again, CBS and Dan Rather shows us again why they can't be trusted for good news reporting. This draft thing is nothing new, and is only being brought forth by Democrats, just look at who's introducing these bills in the House and Senate. A draft is not what Bush wants, because the military doesn't want non-volunteer servicemen. They just don't have the sense of duty that volunteers do.

Jed Babbin on France

"You know frankly, going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind." --Jed Babbin, Hardball 1/30/2003

Re-adding AIM Buddies into Gaim from a blist.xml File

Today I wiped out my entire AIM buddy list without realizing that there was no easy way for re-importing them. Since Gaim doesn't have an import function, I had to make a script that allows me to re-add them via the gaim-remote uri feature. Here's the script: blistconv.pl

Enabling aim: URI linking in Firefox/Mozilla to Gaim

Hopefully this is useful to someone. To make Mozilla or Firefox pass AIM URIs to Gaim, do this:

As root, create the file /usr/bin/gaim-remote-uri with the following contents...

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/gaim-remote uri $1

Then make the file executable by running...

chmod 755 /usr/bin/gaim-remote-uri

Close Mozilla/Firefox.


Open your prefs.js file (~/.firefox/default/XXXXXXXX.slt/prefs.js) and enter the follwing at the end of the file...

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.aim", "/usr/bin/gaim-remote-uri");

Save prefs.js and then open Mozilla/Firefox.

Try out an AIM URI (Try sending me an IM: jholmstadt).

Potentially, this could method be simplified by passing the "uri" argument to gaim-remote directly in prefs.js. However I don't know how to do this, or if it is even possible.

Alternately, I just found this howto on how to do basically the same thing, but in a different way: Gaim Firefox and Aim: Links

The War on Terror

"You ask: What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."

If I told you these words were from the mouth of G.W. Bush, many would come up with a variety of reasons why his statement is wrong. There would be a perpetuation of hatred towards him for making such a statement. Some would shout, as they already have, that our actions in Iraq do nothing to protect us, and will actually further anger the enemy. That we need to practice appeasement, peace through understanding.

However, these words come from decades past, from a man who had faced similarly formidable political and public opposition. They were spoken in a time when the people and politicians said that appeasment was the path to peace. "Peace in our time" they said. A war on terror was emminent, and the price to be paid in blood would be high. Despite public scrutiny, one man stood up for what was right: The enemy, evil must be defeated. The enemy was Hitler. That man was Winston Churchill.

It's been said that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. I pray that our nation and the nations of the world remember and realize the consequences of appeasement.

CSI: NY

Just finished watching the premiere episode of CSI: NY, "The Blink". I'm thoroughly impressed. It's different from the original CSI series in that it has more of a drama feel to it. Gary Sinise was very good. I thought his performance was moving. So given my positive first impression, it's now my top-prioritized item on the MythTV. I just wish it wasn't on C BS ;-)

Update/Review: Garden State

I finally went to see Garden State last weekend while I was back in Appleton. It wasn't what I expected. Not that this is a bad thing, I just misread the film somewhat. Natalie Portman's character was a little more oddball than I imagined. I guess it was more realistic though. The illicit drug theme threw me a little too. It left me a bit uneasy. I sure hope this stuff isn't going on in my home town :-) . The soundtrack was quite good, which is what really caught my attention in the trailers.

All-in-all, I found I was able to relate to the storyline at least in a small degree. It addressed a concern that I've had about anti-depressants: They eliminate ALL emotion, not just sadness. From experience, I can imagine how horrible it would be to live without significant emotion for most of of a person's life.

I still say it's probably better as a date movie, so go get yourself one. :-)

Gaim 1.0!!!

w00t! Gaim has hit 1.0! Hmm. I don't feel any different? :-)

Anyhow, as usual, there appears to be some odd aversion to developers releasing Fedora-compatible RPMs. Maybe I'm missing something, but it's really quite simple (rpmbuild --rebuild gaim-1.0.0-0.src.rpm). But in the words of Bubba, "I feel your pain". I hate compiling too. So rejoice! Gaim 1.0 RPMs for Fedora Core! These could be different from the "official" RPMs (whenever we see them) but I woun't know the difference. They work fine for me.

Let's see how many people paint me as a nutcase this time around :-)

Update: After a few hours of installing dependencies on my FC1 system, recovering from a power outage, and some router weirdness, I have RPMs for Fedora Core 1 as well!

Objective Journalism

I've been telling my liberal friends for years that the old media establishment (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, etc.) cannot be trusted for unbiased, credible information. Take for example this 60 Minutes attempted expose of some scandalous documentation, supposedly proving that there were problems with W's National Guard service. Now it turns out that they very well could be forgeries. But Dan Rather still stands by his story. He refuses to believe that the documents could be forged. OR take Kitty Kelly, who will make three full appearances in three days on NBC’s Today show next week.

What one needs to ask themselves now is "Why doesn't the media work to dig up dirt on Kerry like they attempt to do on Bush?" and the answer is obvious. It's because they don't want to. It wouldn't benefit them.

Oh, and while I'm on the subject, check out this article on W's actual National Guard service records

Napoleon Dynamite

Napoleon Dynamite looks hilarious. Sadly, I have to admit, I can kind of relate to this guy as well :-).

Hopefully I can catch it this next week.