Month: June 2006

06/08/2006

From an Associated Press article:

The governor of Texas wants to turn all the world into a virtual posse. Rick Perry has announced a $5 million plan to install hundreds of night-vision cameras on private land along the Mexican border and put the live video on the Internet, so that anyone with a computer who spots illegal immigrants trying to slip across can report it on a toll-free hot line.

I’m not sure whether to categorize this as “scary” because it’s our government asking us to spy on one another (again), or “staggeringly stupid” because they think people are going to sit in front of their computers watching a web cam of the Texas desert, waiting for a fuzzy ten-pixel blob to pop out of the sagebrush and make a move for the border.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe the kind people running this place.

06/08/2006

“If cruelty is no longer declared unlawful, but instead is applied as a matter of policy, it alters the fundamental relationship of man to government. It destroys the whole notion of individual rights. The Constitution recognizes that man has an inherent right, not bestowed by the state or laws, to personal dignity, including the right to be free of cruelty. It applies to all human beings, not just in America– even those designated as ‘unlawful enemy combatants.’ If you make this exception, the whole Constitution crumbles. It’s a transformative issue.”

— Alberto Mora, former General Counsel of the U.S. Navy

06/06/2006

Man, our house is really stuffy tonight for some reason. It’s been hot the past few days, and we tend not to use the air-conditioning much, but at night normally it cools off nicely. It turns out that tonight in particular it’s cooler outside than inside, and I have some work-related things to do on the laptop. I was kind of grumpy because I was uncomfortably hot, and Laralee suggested I just take the laptop outside.

So I did. I’m sitting in the backyard now, under the half-moon sky, hacking away. Nice!

06/03/2006

I’ve been having discussions with friends (and Laralee) about the Marriage Protection Amendment, which will be up for vote in the U.S. Senate next week. I was a little surprised to find that people I talk to support it; I think it’s a terrible idea.

On a whim, I wrote to my senators to tell them my views:

Sen. Allard and Sen. Salazar:

I’m writing to express some thoughts on the Marriage Protection Amendment scheduled for a vote next week. I do not support the amendment, and feel it will be detrimental in many ways:

1) In my opinion, the government has absolutely no right, nor authority, to meddle in affairs like this. The purpose of the government is to provide for the safety and security of its citizens– nothing more, nothing less. I am against any expansion of government powers, particularly in the arena of personal relationships.

2) Under the Constitution, states’ rights supercede federal rights unless specifically stated in the Constitution. That model was wisely incorporated by the Founding Fathers because they intentionally wanted to avoid a powerful federal government (like the one that ruled the Colonies). This amendment turns that general rule on its head by granting the federal government dominance over states’ rights, and I think that’s a dangerous road.

3) A constitutional amendment will have little or no direct effect on same-sex couples already in committed relationships. If I was gay (I’m not) and living with my partner, I see no reason why I’d suddenly break up with him because of this amendment. Thus, it does absolutely nothing to address the real issue– it merely pushes it farther underground.

Let me be clear that I do not support gay marriage– but I feel that addressing this sensitive issue can be done in different ways, and a constitutional amendment is not an appropriate choice.

Respectfully,
Jeff Schroeder
Longmont CO

I doubt it will do much good, since Sen. Allard is the author of the amendment, but if nothing else I let them know that at least one of their constituents doesn’t support their approach.

06/02/2006

So I ran the annual Bolder Boulder 10-km Memorial Day race, and today they sent my photos. Of course they take pictures of pretty much everyone– all 52,000 of us– and then hope we’ll all pay twenty clams to buy a nice 8×10″ print. But hey, at least I can have a teensy digital picture of myself huffing and puffing along the race route.

So below is a nice before-and-after shot: me with my friend Sean (who ran much, much faster than I did) before the race, and me chugging toward the finish line.

And I did manage to beat my goal: my official time was 58:46. Nothing to brag about, I suppose, but considering I never trained and don’t race any other time during the year, it’s also not too shabby.