] President Bartlet (Martin Sheen): I like how you call
] homosexuality an abombination.
]
] Jenna Jacobs: I don't say homosexuality is an
] abomination, Mr. President, the Bible does.
]
] President Bartlet: Yes, it does. Leviticus.
]
] Jenna Jacobs: 18:22.
]
] President Bartlet: Chapter and verse. I wanted to ask you
] a couple of questions while I have you here. I'm
] interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery
] as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She's a Georgetown
] sophmore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table
] when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be?
] While thinking about that, can I ask another? My Chief of
] Staff Leo McGarry insists on working on the Sabbath.
] Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I
] morally obligated to kill him myself or is it okay to
] call the police? Here's one that's really important
] because we've got a lot of sports fans in this town:
] touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean.
] Leviticus 11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the
] Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame?
] Can West Point? Does the whole town really have to be
] together to stone my brother John for planting different
] crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small
] family gathering for wearing garments made from two
] different threads? Think about those questions, would
] you?

Found this the other day and thought the Memestreams audience should share the laugh. FYI: The stoning commences tomorrow.

[ always liked that scene... kind of a "hell yeah! take that!" moment -k]

The West Wing

] Microsoft Corp. faces a trial in a patent infringement
] suit over the "autoplay" feature in Windows that
] automatically starts an application after storage media
] is loaded into a PC.

[ Of course, slash-drones are going on and on about all the prior art embodied in their amiga's and macintoshes and UNIX mainframes of old. Of course, as with all law, the devil's in the details, which only a lawyer can anlyze fully. Still, seems like if this one's upheld, Apple and Red Hat could be next... -k]

InfoWorld: Microsoft may face trial over 'autoplay' feature: February 10, 2004: By : Applications

Elonka wrote:
] To be honest, even if it was true (and I don't believe it is),
] it wouldn't have an impact on my opinion. Someone cut school
] for a day? Big whoop.

[ With all due respect, this isn't about skipping school. It's about reneging on a sworn promise to serve in the United States Armed Forces. If this is true, it means that the President is a man who couldn't find it in himself to commit fully to the National Guard, an honorable position that nonetheless was a gift from god compared with fighting in a foreign war. For such a man to talk to *anyone* about patriotism, honor, or duty, much less command this generation of soldiers to wage war is outrageous.

I'm as skeptical as anyone about this situation... it seems to me like much ado without much data, but it's not about nothing. If it comes out as fact, then we're talking about hypocracy of the worst sort -- the kind in which people die under orders from a false leader. If it comes out to be nothing, then we can reprimand the accusers, demand their apology, and then move on. But to claim it's unimportant is completely absurd and does a disservice to those who don't equivocate their dedication to the oaths they take. -k]

Spokesman Defends Bush's Military Service

] MacBand is an online directory of songs and loops made by
] artists using Apple Computer's GarageBand software.

[ All of them are offerred under Creative Commons licences... an interesting implication for the Remix Culture meme the community seems so fond of... neat idea. -k]

MacBand.com - Share Your Music with the World

] This proposed amendment, regardless of what Bush or its
] backers say, would impose a complete ban, at all levels
] of government, on same-sex marriages. While Bush claims
] it's necessary to handcuff "activist judges", the
] amendment would prevent the will of the people -- in the
] form of state legislatures -- from providing those
] benefits if they so chose.

[ Preposterous. And the best part? The majority of people will support it. Interestingly, the numbers for 18-29 year olds are almost exactly the reverse of the overall numbers. This is an ongoing problem with politics. The young permit the old to set the agenda, meaning we'll have to go back and change it all in 20 years. Granted, the baby-boomer situation is going to put the young at a numerical disadvantage, but still, apathy is not your friend. -k]

Daily Kos || Bush backs gay marriage amendment

] Heard about Detroit's best-kept secret? There's a
] spectacular neighborhood just north of downtown.
]
] You haven't seen it?
]
] That's because it doesn't exist -- yet.
]
] The area, for decades one of Detroit's most blighted
] sections, is undergoing widespread redevelopment, but its
] condition is still pretty ragged.
]
] Blight? No problem. Detroit tourism officials simply made
] the abandoned buildings disappear.

[ Ha. Incidentally, wasn't urban redevelopment in Old Detroit the plot of RoboCop? Is there an OCP? Cuz, if they work out those bugs, i want me an ED-209... -k]

Will the real Detroit skyline please stand up?

] Findings published online this week by the Proceedings of
] the National Academy of Sciences indicate that increasing
] leptin levels in the body can fundamentally change the
] nature of fat cells -- from idle storage containers to
] fat-burning machines.

[ Next month : excess leptin causes brain tumors, based on new study. -k]

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Hormone Transforms Fat Cells from Foes to Friends, Rat Study Suggests

] Diana Farrell, director, McKinsey Global Institute,
] said, “People in the US are looking at it as a job
] issue. They are not economists and therefore, they
] don’t necessarily see the whole picture. What’s going
] to happen is that offshoring is actually going to
] benefit US businesses even more than India.” She said
] it was a profoundly new way of doing things and would
] change the structure of organisations. Offshore was
] about global wealth creation and integrating economies,
] she explained, adding that it would create more
] high-value jobs in the US than people could imagine today.

[ i. don't. belive. you. -k]

Outsourcing to add 22 mn US jobs

] But it was in the second part of the interview that
] things, to my mind, unraveled. Bush offered no compelling
] rationale for reelecting him. He offered excuses on the
] economy; and, on the critical matter of the country's
] fiscal health, he seemed scarily out of touch.
] ...
] if this is the level of coherence, grasp of reality,
] and honesty that is really at work in his understanding
] of domestic fiscal policy, then we are in even worse
] trouble than we thought.

[ A strikingly similar analysis of Bush's Meet the Press interview to my own. The key difference is that this is Andrew Sullivan, a traditional Bush apologist, if not supporter. The republican base is foundering on the issue of the economy. This is our opening, unless by some magical chance, the US creates 10 million jobs and the debt mysteriously vanishes in the next 6 months. -k]

The New Republic Online: Attention Deficit

] The movement of American factory jobs and white-collar
] work to other countries is part of a positive
] transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over
] time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocation,
] the Bush administration said yesterday.
]
]...
]
] "Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international
] trade," said N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of Bush's
] Council of Economic Advisors, which prepared the report.
] "More things are tradable than were tradable in the past.
] And that's a good thing."

[ WHAT!?! -k]

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Bush report: Sending jobs overseas helps U.S.