1937-2008

He was one of my favorite comedians.  I loved his comedy shows, his books, and his performances in movies.  He truly was a legend.  He will be missed.

Gov. Matt Blunt signed legislation on Tuesday allowing Missourians to fatally shoot intruders without fear of prosecution or lawsuits.

Not all too surprising really. We, in Missouri, like our guns, even when we don’t like them. (I’m referring to our state legislature passing a concealed weapons law allowing people to carry with a permit even though the voters said no).

The measure spells out that people are not required to retreat from an intruder and can use deadly force once the person illegally enters their home, vehicle or other dwelling, including a tent. The bill provides an absolute defense against being charged or sued for using such force.

Why do I foresee a lot of drunk camping/hunting accidents/murders involving rednecks? I mean really, a tent? Does that happen often? Someone breaks into your tent to steal all your valuables? “Well officer, he did try to take my hundred-dollar Coleman lantern. That’s worth more than my trailer. And it’s a double wide.”

Under the old law, deadly force was justified only if people believed it necessary to protect themselves or others from death or serious injury.

Wasn’t that reasonable enough? Now all they have to do is come on to your property? Why do I think Blunt had one too many door to door salesmen or Mormons show up at his door? I can probably think of a few people that I wouldn’t mind inviting over and have myself protected under this new law. I know what you’re thinking, if I invited them, then I’m not protected under this law. Well, how are you going to find that out if they’re spread out over my lawn? (No, I’m not being serious, but I can’t wait until someone actually does claim this).

The measure also gets rid of a state law requiring people to obtain permits from their local sheriffs before they can get a handgun.

Sweet. Now it’s even easier for people to have guns without telling anyone. Gun Control in Missouri is an oxymoron. And don’t give me the crap about owning more guns makes crime rates drop. In Missouri it hasn’t.

Via StLToday.com

GOODBYE BLUE MONDAY!

From the NYT:

Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,� “Cat’s Cradle� and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater� caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan.

Mr. Vonnegut suffered irreversible brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago, according to his wife, Jill Krementz.

Like Mark Twain, Mr. Vonnegut used humor to tackle the basic questions of human existence: Why are we in this world? Is there a presiding figure to make sense of all this, a god who in the end, despite making people suffer, wishes them well?

EDIT: Just an update, I contacted the site’s host, DreamHost and they said they support free speech. This is understandable. I, however, doubt it has anything to do with free speech and more to do with them making money from a client. That’s just how DH operates. Even if the hate speech can incite hate crimes (which, if you look at the wikipedia entry posted in the comments by Mike, actually has happened). This lead me to post some terms in which I explain I have no affiliation with the content on sites using my theme. Kind of an obvious thing, but I just want to cover my bases.

Robert K. McFerrin Sr., an opera singer from St. Louis who performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, died Friday (Nov. 24, 2006) at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital of a heart attack. He was 85 and lived in Creve Coeur.

Mr. McFerrin was born in Marianna, Ark., the seventh of eight children. He began singing at his father’s church as a boy and continued to pursue music as a student at Sumner High School.

Mr. McFerrin served in the Army in World War II. He married Sara Cooper in 1949. They shared a love of music and reared two children. They later divorced.

Mr. McFerrin graduated in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in music from Chicago Musical College. He received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Harris-Stowe State College in 1987.

Mr. McFerrin is best known for providing the vocals for Sidney Poitier in the 1959 film “Porgy and Bess.” He also starred at the New York Metropolitan Opera, where in 1955, he became the first African-American male to sing solo.

Mr. McFerrin toured internationally, showcasing his rich, baritone voice in concerts and opera houses throughout Europe. He sang with the National Negro Opera Company and appeared on Broadway.

In 1973, Mr. McFerrin moved back to St. Louis, performing regularly at venues such as the Sheldon Concert Hall and the St. Louis Art Museum. Though a stroke in 1989 impaired his speaking ability, he was still able to sing. He continued to perform, teach and tour on a demanding schedule until 1998.

Mr. McFerrin often sang alongside his daughter, Brenda McFerrin of Anaheim, Calif., a recording artist, and his son, Grammy-winning conductor and vocalist Robert “Bobby” McFerrin Jr. of Philadelphia, who is best-known for the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

In 2003, Opera America honored the senior Mr. McFerrin with a lifetime achievement award. He earned a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 2004.

Mr. McFerrin married Athena McFerrin in 1994.

Visitation will be from 9 a.m. Friday until the funeral service at 10 a.m. at Lupton Chapel, 7233 Delmar Boulevard, University City. Interment will be private at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.

In addition to his wife and children, among survivors are a sister, Minnie Cartwright of St. Louis; and three grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to the McFerrin Endowment, University of Missouri at St. Louis, 1 University Boulevard, St. Louis, Mo. 63121-4400.

Anna’s Blog
Caleb Was Here
Give Away of the Day (hat tip Mark)
Homeland Stupidity
All in the Cards
Photomatt
Qn5 Blog
Ryan.Connect
Simply Complex
Sporadic Nonsense
What Makes You Happy?
StL Today Cardinals
Yahoo Sports- Cardinals

I also have on my Google Homepage Wired Top Stories, Slashdot, BBC, and New York Times. All good reads. What’s in your feed reader?

Is Senator Talent working for public education? ‘F’ on report card says no

It is report card time for lawmakers of all stripes and U.S. Senator Jim Talent has some explaining to do. He got an F on the National Education Association’s 109th Legislative Report Card for the 2005-06 session of the U.S. Congress, released in Washington, D.C.

Talent’s score was 29 out of 100. The F grade is based on votes on key NEA supported legislation and criteria measuring a lawmaker’s commitment to public education via co-sponsorship of bills, behind the scenes work, accessibility and advocacy.

Talent, whose recent state campaign ads highlight his work, falls short of the mark when it comes to sharing the responsibility of helping make public education work for every child.

Among the votes counted in 2005, Senator Talent voted against the restoration of $4.8 billion for 48 education programs slated for elimination, including those addressing Career and Technical Education, Safe and Drug-Free Schools, and education technology grants. He also voted against increasing Head Start funding and for massive cuts to entitlement programs in the budget reconciliation measure in late December of that year.

In 2006, Senator Talent voted against an amendment that restored funding for college prep programs, raising the maximum Pell Grant to $4,500, and providing up to $23,000 in student loan forgiveness to new teachers in high need schools.

On other lawmaking tasks of interest to Missouri public school workers, Senator Talent voted repeatedly against raising the minimum wage. He also refused to join the majority of his Congressional colleagues in co-sponsoring a bill to restore Social Security benefits that Missouri’s teachers and education support staff and their spouses have earned.

Senator Talent’s report card is available for NEA member’s inspection at http://www.nea.org/lac/senate.html.

Make sure you don’t vote for Talent this November and instead vote for Claire McCaskill.

Today, in their open discussion forum, a post was made asking what others thought about them closing these forums. Many people responded during the post’s short lifespan, including Site5 staff itself. Obviously, once management (I’m talking about you, Mr. Lightner) found this out, it was deleted. Luckily, another forum member posted a pdf on his site of what was said. You can read it here. Now, call me crazy, but having support forums where the community can support seems like it should reduce trouble tickets for support. I can probably come up with 5 occasions off the top of my head in which I didn’t have to open a ticket because I found the information in the forums. If anything, this new policy will only increase support’s already busy workload. Don’t be fooled by the response times on Site5′s homepage. At one time (when I signed up) they were this low, but they neglect their customers in order to oversell their hosting and try new products to entice people, none of which are actually implemented (think RapifReflex, Webmail 2.0, Flashback). They say they respond in an average of 25 minutes, let’s take a look at some of mine:

Avg. Site5 Resp. Time: 211.5 minutes
Avg. Site5 Resp. Time: 354.6 minutes
Avg. Site5 Resp. Time: 84.5 minutes

And most of the time, they don’t even answer your question, so you have to wait another 100+ minutes for another response.

The thread also stated that management will respond to each and every one of the emails that people send regarding this issue. I find this to be a joke as well. I put in a management review ticket months ago with no response. I emailed Matt Lightner and never got a response. I even had a thread put into the Management Review hidden forum and got no response. And like another customer said, site5 webhosting…the only way to deal with bad pr is to delete it. (by the way, this site is hosted on A Small Orange now.)

EDIT: It seems they have added some forums for “customer-to-customer” support. My faith has still not been restored though. Unless they start listening to their customers, stop overselling, and quit with software promises that never get implamented, they are a sinking ship.

Richard Pryor, the caustic yet perceptive actor-comedian who lived dangerously close to the edge both on stage and off, died Saturday. He was 65. Pryor died shortly before 8 a.m. of a heart attack after being taken to a hospital from his home in the San Fernando Valley, said his business manager, Karen Finch. He had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

Technorati Tags: technology, web 2.0, WordPress

Thirteen-year-old twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede have one album out, another on the way, a music video, and lots of fans.

They may remind you another famous pair of singers, the Olsen Twins, and the girls say they like that. But unlike the Olsens, who built a media empire on their fun-loving, squeaky-clean image, Lamb and Lynx are cultivating a much darker personna. They are white nationalists and use their talents to preach a message of hate.

Known as “Prussian Blue” — a nod to their German heritage and bright blue eyes — the girls from Bakersfield, Calif., have been performing songs about white nationalism before all-white crowds since they were nine.

“We’re proud of being white, we want to keep being white,” said Lynx. “We want our people to stay white … we don’t want to just be, you know, a big muddle. We just want to preserve our race.” Read More

Bush blocks bush on .xxx

Read the article here

“The National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players’ Association have reached an agreement in principle on the terms of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement,” says the NHLPA in a statement.

How great is this! I can finally watch the Blues play again. Let’s hope someone buys the team soon.