] At first it may seem a bit extreme to imply a comparison
] between the atrocities of Hitler and what is happening in
] terms of contemporary threats against the family -- but
] maybe not. I just turned 50 years old, and I have never
] married. That was not my intention, and it has not been
] my choice. When someone asks me why I have never married,
] the simple and truthful answer is that nobody has ever
] asked me. Nonetheless, when I speak about the family, I
] have a deep, profound and abiding belief that the family
] is absolutely ordained of God, that it is part of His
] plan for His children, that marriage is supposed to be
] between a male and a female, and that children deserve to
] be born to and raised by two parents, father and mother.
] That is the ideal.

[ This is the voice of unity that kicked off the RNC, Sheri Dew. Upthread of what i snagged here she actually does imlpy that supporting gay marriage is like supporting Hitler.

I can't imagine why no one has ever proposed to this jem. -k]

Eschaton

] "We have a clear vision on how to win the war on terror
] and bring peace to the world."
]
] -- George W. Bush
] July 30th 2004.
]
]
] "I don't think you can win [the war on terror]. But
] I think you can create conditions so that the --
] those who use terror as a tool are -- less acceptable
] in parts of the world."
]
] -- George W. Bush
] Aug. 29th, 2004.

[ Goddamn, that John Kerry is one hell of a flip-flopper. -k]

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: August 29, 2004 - September 04, 2004 Archives

] In brief A computer virus specifically designed to steal
] files with names such as "exam" or "test questions" has
] reportedly been discovered by a Chinese Internet security
] firm.
]
] The "exam theft" virus is capable of infecting Microsoft
] Word and Excel files and uploading targeted documents
] onto the Net, the Shanghai Daily News reports. The paper
] reports that there is a thriving trade in black-market
] exam papers and implies this might have motivated the
] creation of the virus.

This is amazing! We have spiders and robots to crawl and compile searchs for the web. Dogpile used to (and probably still does) have a search for major FTP sites. We have some (rather crappy but getting better) P2P search engines. Viruses that are tailor made to crawl the internet looking for specific data instead of destroying it was bound to happen. Provided you could keep the propogation controlled, people might not even know about it.

Imagine a virus that exploits a box, searchs for specific data, send it to you, patch the hole the came in with, and moves to the next computer.

Data crawling viruses

] The writer-director of "Dogma," "Chasing Amy" and "Jay
] and Silent Bob Strike Back" told the Associated Press on
] Friday that he has begun work on a sequel to "Clerks,"
] his homemade indie classic from 1994.
]
] ...
]
] The sequel picks up 10 years later.
]
] "It's about what happens when that lazy, 20-something
] malaise lasts into your 30s. Those dudes are kind of
] still mired, not in that same exact situation, but in a
] place where it's time to actually grow up and do
] something more than just sit around and dissect pop
] culture and talk about sex," Smith said during an
] interview at his Hollywood office. "It's: What happened
] to these dudes?"

[ HOLY CRAP! -k]

CNN.com - Ten years after original, Kevin Smith plans 'Clerks' sequel - Aug 30, 2004

] MARIETTA, Georgia (AP) -- A drunken driver hit a
] telephone pole support wire that decapitated his
] passenger, police said.
]
] He then drove 12 miles home and slept in his bloody
] clothes, police said, leaving the headless body in his
] truck.
]
] "It's hard for one to imagine that you would drive miles
] from a crash site to your home, turning in various
] directions, and yet not know what has happened to a
] passenger sitting next to you," Pierce said.

[ Seriously, what the fuck! -k]

Police: Drunken man drives home with decapitated friend

] Emergency workers had to remove some sliding glass doors
] and lift the couch, with Grinds still on it, to a trailer
] behind a pickup truck. Removing her from the couch would
] be too painful, since her body was grafted to the fabric.
] After years of staying put, her skin had literally become
] one with the sofa and had to be surgically removed.

[ Jesus. I mean, how does this happen? The filth must have been unreal. -k]

480-Pound Woman Dies After Six Years On Couch

] By the tens of thousands, demonstrators marched, chanted
] -- "No More Years!" -- and danced through the streets of
] Manhattan on Sunday, voicing their anger with President
] Bush, the war in Iraq and the Republicans' decision to
] hold a national convention in this most Democratic of
] urban bastions.
]
] Hundreds of police officers in riot gear lined the
] sidewalks, SWAT vans idled, and police helicopters
] whirred overhead. But the protest was as peaceful as it
] was vast. More than 200,000 demonstrators, according to a
] police estimate, packed dozens of blocks along Seventh
] Avenue and snaked down side streets.

[ I've seen scattered estimates up to 500,000, though that's probly over the top... Really an incredible thing that happened, for so many people to be able to demonstrate peacefully. There were only some scattered arrests for things like impeding traffic, and a minor fire some anarchists set. Not getting the coverage it deserves i think. -k]

200,000 in N.Y. Protest Bush (washingtonpost.com)

] On Monday, Orion Multisystems, a start-up company based
] in Santa Clara, California, was to announce a desktop
] computer for engineers and scientists who want more
] computing power than is easily available from Fry's, the
] local retail chain for personal computers. Orion is
] building a computer the size of a pizza box, intended for
] a single engineer or scientist, that will have 12
] processors yet consume about the same amount of power as
] a standard desktop personal computer.

[ Presumably a 12 node transmeta box... seems like a neat idea, if it can find a market... that's a hell of a workstation. -k]

IHT: PC maker bets on personal power

] "I've been going to Republican conventions since 1972,
] and I've never seen a convention with as many protesters
] in the streets," said David Gergen, who has worked for
] several Republican presidents, and Bill Clinton. "The
] irony is that was a convention held here because of
] echoes of 9/11, but it opens with echoes of Chicago and
] the Vietnam war.
]
] "The protests are anti-Bush, with heavy antiwar
] overtones, but this is Chicago without the fisticuffs,
] without the fight, without the bloodshed - so far," Mr.
] Gergen added. "To interpret this politically is hard, but
] my gut is that large, peaceful protests are not what the
] Republicans want. The protesters are stealing the story
] for the first day and drowning out the Republican
] message. If there's violence, that could all change."

The New York Times - News Analysis: Upstaging Before the Show - The RNC Convention Protest March

] Cinefour theaters in North Logan started a new trend
] Friday night in video gaming in Cache Valley. Theater
] managers took four video projectors, set one up in each
] of four theaters with a Microsoft XBox video game system
] connected to it, and then let the fun begin for more than
] 60 people.
]
]
] "Tonight blew our minds," theater co-owner Calvin Timothy
] said afterward. "We're definitely going to keep doing
] this."

[ Interesting alternate source of revenue for theaters... i wonder if it'll catch on... -k]

The Herald Journal: Archives