Neglect

I've not forgotten about this, I've really just had very little to say as of late. Too much on the brain as it were, what with Christmas and so on.

About the only thing that's gone on recently was the crib tournament from this past Thursday where I wound up 4-4, at least breaking even (without getting skunked; one of the victories was by skunk though). Oh, and helping to move a thousand or so bottles of wine from my Dad's old place to his new one before losing possession of the old one. That happened last Saturday, and I was sore for about 2 days afterward. It was... strenuous.

More later perhaps... today's election day in Canada with both the national Liberal leadership and provincial Conservative leaderships at stake. The TV is tuned to CBC currently... and yes, Belinda Stronach does look good as a brunette.

RIP Habeus Corpus

As a followup to my earlier post about the Military Commissions Act recently passed in the US, interested parties might want to check out this very well-written rebuttal to the legislation from Keith Olbermann of MSNBC if you haven't already done so. [Quicktime Format]

Now, I'm willing to and freely do admit I'm a right wing voter. Were I an American citizen/resident, I could never see myself among the members of the ACLU. However, this still freaks me out to no end. I've said to various people on various occasions in the past how I am so very glad to not be an American (citizen, resident, sympathizer). Outlandish acts like this reinforce that feeling to an extreme degree.

I particularly like Olbermann's closing, where he pontificates about this legislation being used against Bush in the future. Poetic justice would never be so well-defined as it would be should that happen.

I'm scared

This is an article I just read which freaks the hell out of me. The end result isn't what scares me so much as the fact such legislation can go through the various levels of government and reach Bush to sign into law. Rumsfeld as (essentially) the spot where the buck stops when it comes to (quite probable) overzealous interrogation and investigation? That guy would smile from ear to ear while pulling the wings off a fly. Something is very, very rotten with this new legislation.

If nothing else, it would be fantastically easy to whisk away a presumed "terrorist" to somewhere off US soil so that these "limitations" outlined in the legislation don't even apply (which seems to make this legislation at least partially moot!). The military could literally get away with murder (no comment as to the likely fact they already do). I can't even really bear to think about the ramifications this could have while the US remains at war, yet complacency is not the answer.

Anyway, in happier news, today Apple announced a $546M profit for the most recent fiscal quarter, with (yet to be adjusted) profits of $0.62/share. It's always wonderful to see the company succeed despite recent woes (the FoxConn iPod factory findings, the options scandal, iPod virii, etc.). I don't think I've been a happier computing type guy since I finally divested myself of my Windows PC and went back to an all-Mac setup. Now if only there was a way to score a free 24" iMac. Mmmm.... better-than-true-HD-resolution...

I, like a lot of Apple fans, was worried last year when the Intel switch was announced. However, I'm glad to say it was quite possibly the best thing Apple has ever done in its efforts to shill the Mac. That's a hard thing to say given I went through the birth of System 7, the demise of Copland (though I still have some way-cool developer materials on Copland from an old MacWorld), the PowerPC transition, the Mac OS X transition, and the death of Classic as a Mac user. More to the point, i lub my MacBook Pro. So sexy, oh so sexy, and oh so fast. Go Apple!