brandondawson.org

Via Think Progress and Ben Smith @ Politico

In one symbolic development, organizers of next year’s Conservative Political Action Conference — the country’s biggest annual meeting of activists on the right — said last week that they had rejected a request to schedule a panel on whether Obama was a native-born U.S. citizen.

Good! Republicans, it’s high time you got it through your heads that the reason you lost both houses of Congress, the Presidency, and soon the Supreme Court is because you have completely abrogated your responsibility to govern, to say nothing of your mandate to present a credible alternative to Democratic proposals. Continue reading…

So it appears that Charles Barkley will be doing time in Sheriff Joe’s sideshow tents. [link]

It’ll be interesting to see whether this brings Barkley’s inimitably brash voice into the debates surrounding Arpaio’s policies as Sheriff, which, like a lot of sheriffs around the country, seem to be geared more towards electoral stunts and gaining media attention than with protecting the public.

(My short list of regular readers will notice a promised post that hasn’t appeared yet; I’ve been ill the last few days, and that post will appear tomorrow.)

I like baseball, as those of you who know me personally know well. It’s pretty much the only sport I care about, and the only one I bother watching on television.

A few months back, I got the bright idea to try MLB’s Extra Innings package, thinking I’d get to watch games out of market at times of my choosing. (Every regional sports channel these days runs replays of the games during off-hours.)

There’s a few major problems with the service:

• The “MLB Mix” channel hasn’t worked for me, since Day Two.
• The games are just rebranded feeds of the regional FoxSportsNet, and replays are not offered, despite the fact that all FoxSportsNet channels show at least one replay of the game.
• Half the time, the games don’t actually show at all. I’m not sure if this is the notorious “blackouts” I’d read about, or what, but either way, it sucks.

In short, I’d strongly recommend to anyone that bothers to read this that you avoid MLB Extra Innings at ALL costs. Whether it’s the policy of my provider, or MLB, I’m stuck paying for another three months of almost $50 a month for a service that’s nearly worthless in the 21st Century. Apparently, once you opt-in, you can’t opt-out.

(Eat that, MLB. Hope my token $300 was worth a permanent signpost saying “MLB EXTRA INNINGS SUCKS” where everyone can see it.)

There’s a non-profit running a fun game online that donates 10 grains of rice per correct answer on a vocabulary test. [link]

I’ve been playing it here-and-there throughout the day today, and I’ve racked up about 1,200 grains thus far.

Dear Wendy’s:

When you stop wrapping your sandwiches in non-microwavable foil, I’ll stop trying to microwave non-microwavable foil.

My life might depend on it, so I’d appreciate it deeply if you made this important safety alteration today.

When I heard that “Girls Gone Wild” mogul Joe Francis was being busted for tax evasion, my response was probably much the same as yours was. I couldn’t give a crap less.

But, watching some late-night TV, I noticed that the GGW ads are still running. With Francis imprisoned and his tax evasion case looming, who do you really think will get the proceeds from a GGW video you might buy today?

The United States Government is, effectively, now in the soft-core pr0n industry.

Food for thought.

Ubuntu’s development teams recently announced a new Ubuntu flavor aimed at multimedia and video production environments. [link]

Speaking as someone who’s tried to steer video-editing friends into F/OSS, only to find the true GPL solutions “not yet ready for prime-time”, I applaud this move: the right move at the right time.

I have no shortage of projects. I do have a shortage of time.

Since I’ve just committed to writing a book on the Joomla CMS for Packt Publishing, and because it just wouldn’t do to have no personal website for my prospective readers to link to, I was faced with a conundrum. I could:

• Use my book to promote some of my other endeavors, which are in various states of completion, and as such, may appear less professional than I’d prefer, or
• Start a New weblog, on a vanity domain.

So, even though I’ve resisted for ten years the impulse to register a vanity domain, I’ve now been compelled to do precisely that.

On this particular component of my overall online presence, the reader may expect to read:

• My thoughts and writings on various professional matters
• Snippets of my professional writing
• An overall slice of the life of me.

Pretty unexciting, really, but we’ll see what develops. Continue reading…