June 12, 2009
-
Not as good as Flight Control, but still worth a buck, I think.
-
Another method for XML Sitemaps in MT.
-
Creating an XML Sitemap with an MT Plugin
-
Instructions to add alt tags to your MTAssets
May 29, 2009
-
Rules to live by.
-
What could possibly go wrong?
-
Gmail on Steroids. Coming soon.
April 30, 2009
On Facebook today, a friend of mine made the claim that she was going to honor President Obama’s 100th day in office by praying “for our country before that becomes a hate crime too.”
There’s a lot I disagree with in that statement, but one aspect is close to my heart and I can’t let it pass without clearing up a common misconception.
Hate crimes laws don’t make any new activities illegal.
Instead, for example, the current legislation before Congress provides for federal prosecution and enhanced sentencing for crimes that are considered especially heinous.
This is something we already do in a wide variety of ways. For example, crimes committed against children are generally considered “worse” and therefore these criminals face stiffer punishments.
In fact, we already have a federal hate crimes law, passed in 1969.
This law permits federal prosecution of hate crimes committed on the basis of someone’s race, religion, or national origin, but only when the victim was engaged in a federally protected activity like voting, going to school, or enjoying the National Parks.
The new hate crimes law - known officially as the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act - only expands the scope of existing law.
First, it expands the list of “protected classes” to include gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability.
Second, it removes the requirement that the victim must be engaged in a specific, federally protected activity.
The idea behind the law is that crimes committed against someone because they are part of a specific group is a “bigger” crime with more “victims” than a random act of violence. Not only do you have a physical victim, but it also creates a sense of fear within that entire community.
Ergo, the reasoning is that since this crime affects more people than just the individual victim, sentencing should be enhanced.
We can disagree about whether that’s a good reason to add years to a prison sentence, but it’s disingenuous to say that the bill makes new actions illegal. It just provides for enhanced prosecution and sentencing for existing crimes.
I pray for a country that doesn’t try to address violence and bigotry.
April 21, 2009
-
Even Captain Picard wants the Red Wings to win.
-
I'm hoping to try this in the near future.
-
Cool new Twitter app for Mac
April 16, 2009
April 8, 2009
-
I, for one, am rooting for Bemidji.
April 7, 2009
-
…in honor of Opening Day
April 3, 2009
-
Tracy, we need a new car with Bluetooth
April 1, 2009
-
Reading this, but thinking of "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." Just because it's a bad law, doesn't mean you're righteous in flaunting it.
-
Great spyware removal tool. Knocked out Tracy's problem in no time.
-
The tux I chose for this party I'm having in August.
-
I did this today and it dramatically sped up MT.
-
Just sayin.
-
Good tutorial for making striped backgrounds in Photoshop.
-
Cool idea.
March 26, 2009
-
Movie Trailer of the Day
March 25, 2009
-
Funnest iPhone game yet.
March 24, 2009
-
Finally, someone thinks the Geithner plan might work. Let's hope so.
-
Corporations lying about workers' rights? I'm shocked! Shocked!
-
Good resource for building beautiful CSS files.
-
All this time I've been using multiple instances of query_posts when I should have been using wp_query. I know you don't care, but this was a big deal to me.
-
Great resource to add very classy looking comments to WP.
March 21, 2009
-
I thought this was amazingly powerful. President Obama is showing the world a true willingness to engage. To some extent, I think it backs Iran into a corner. After a beautiful appeal like this, can they really justify their bellicose attitude to the Great Satan? Makes those who called Obama naive on foreign policy look, well, naive.
March 19, 2009
-
Shameful, but a must-read. We must undo what they did.
March 17, 2009
-
A good summary of an important computer science breakthrough.
March 16, 2009
The short version: Fill out bracket. Win free donuts. Password: freedonuts
The longer, more self-important version:
Every year about this time, Greg Gumbel comes on my TV screen and reminds me that I forgot to send donuts to the winner of last year’s Donutland bracket challenge. So I hop onto DunkinDonuts.com and make it happen.
The thing is, this year, I have no idea who won last year. Yeah, yeah, mea culpa. So if you’re out there, expecting donuts, gimme a holla. I will make good on my promises.
For the rest of you: Same deal as usual. Win my NCAA tourney pool and get a free box of donuts - plus a full year of unprecedented, donut-themed bragging rights.
You don’t need to know anything about basketball. Gavrie keeps telling me that’s actually a disadvantage. Tracy is once again balancing “Law School Ranking” and “Proximity to New England” to recreate her epic Holy Cross - Harvard Final Four matchup.
Besides, extra bonus donuts are awarded for good sports.
Click here to join. ESPN should guide you through the rest.
Password: freedonuts
Tournament games start THURSDAY AT NOON. Be sure to join by then. I’ll send a reminder when it’s closer to game time.
Last year, we had nearly 50 contenders. Let’s beat that this year. Please pass this along to friends.
todd
P.S. First bonus donut goes to the first correct answer to the following question:
Who serves the world’s best donuts?
There is one correct answer, and no Joe, it’s not the one you’re thinking of.
P.P.S. - If the link above doesn’t work, follow these instructions.
- Go here.
- Create an entry.
- Join the group “Donutland” using the password “lardlad”
- Set your picks before the games tip-off THURSDAY AT NOON.
March 11, 2009
-
The next great Tiger prospect bids for a spot in the rotation
February 23, 2009
-
Hard to argue with, although I think Milk is definitely a movie with staying power, so I would give it some love. But WALL-E is an all-time classic.
February 20, 2009
-
Best restaurant in all of Flint.
February 18, 2009
-
I'm still not entirely certain this is at all useful, but totally offline web-based Gmail on your iPhone is obviously pretty cool, technically.
