Barack Obama is the most intelligent, reasoned politician I have ever heard. This video is remarkable. In it, he shares his views on religion and its role in a pluralistic, progressive society.

My favorite passage of the speech (emphahsis added):

And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson’s, or Al Sharpton’s? Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount - a passage that is so radical that it’s doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let’s read our bibles. Folks haven’t been reading their bibles.

You can read the full transcript of his speech here.

Are you hearing this America?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Miro (the open source video player formerly known as Democracy) is running a contest right now to design a revised one-click subscribe button.

A Fun Little Design Contest
Design up to three buttons and submit them as links in the comments. On August 20th, we’ll create a blog post with all of the submissions.
There aren’t a lot of constraints on what you can submit. Our goal is to have a selection of buttons that would look nice on a blog sidebar or myspace page. We hope to see a variety of sizes and colors.

Here are my three submissions, shown on different backgrounds. My goal for this is to create simple, clean, and usable buttons.

	#FFFFFF	#666666	#000000
Option #1
Option #2
Option #3

I’ll update this post once voting is started so you can vote for my submissions if you like them

Update: Thanks to everyone who voted for my submissions. (I won the grand prize. )

Popularity: 3% [?]

Question: What do scientists consider to be valid evidence for a theory? How should studies be conducted to prove efficacy of treatment options? How can we tell, scientifically, if something really works or not?

• Scientific method
• CARGO CULT SCIENCE by Richard Feynman
• Mistakes in Experimental Design and Interpretation
• Randomized controlled trial
• Placebo effect

Popularity: 3% [?]

Excellent commentary by the ever awesome Ze Frank on the topic of “Waves”. You have to watch the video to get it. Are you a surfer or a floater or a castle builder?

Check it out: the show with zefrank

Popularity: 2% [?]

2006 was a good year.

I’m grateful for the lessons I’ve learned this year. I’m grateful that I took the opportunity to jump full-time into custom web application development, quitting my day job at Vibe Solutions Group to pursue my goal of having ownership in the projects that I work on. Even though everything hasn’t yet worked out how I had envisioned, I feel that I’m much stronger in many key areas. I’ve seen a lot of successes so far and am looking forward to many more in 2007.

I’m grateful for all the dog walks I’ve gotten to take with Kuma at 2:00 am in the morning in Tower Grove Park. It’s a quiet time, usually there is nobody else in the park at that hour. I’m grateful that Collabofit is at a stage where I can use it to help motivate me each day to take my 2.2 mile walk, get outside, breathe some fresh air, and enjoy the magnificent resource that is Tower Grove Park.

I’m grateful that my wife Kristin finished a illustrating a new book — Shepherd, Show Me — for our church that finally puts pictures to the hymn that every child learns first - Shepherd, Show Me How To Go. I’m also grateful that she will be showing a major exhibition of her artwork at Northwest Coffee in Clayton, exhibiting her latest Mozart paintings that continue her Letters to Mozart series.

I’m grateful to have been able to attend my brother Andy’s wedding and to serve as his best man. It was an honor and a joy. It was also a pleasure to visit Andy and Val in Florida for Thanksgiving this year. Val did an excellent job of preparing the feast.

I’m grateful for the progress on our Kitchen Project and am looking forward to it being completed. It is turning out wonderful, bit by bit.

I’m grateful that we had the opportunity to visit our good friend Michael up in Alaska in March when he was still living there and do some cross crountry skiing, snow shoeing and freeze our noses off.

This was my most viewed picture in 2006 (from my Flickr Most Popular Pictures page).

These were the most visited entries on this site this year:

1. How-to: Use your shiny new Treo 700p as a USB Modem for your laptop and get super-fast Sprint EVDO speeds
2. digg - Weird Al - Ridin’ Dirty (White & Nerdy) (+lyrics)
3. Cool — I won the British Lottery!

The #1 most commented entry on this site (written 2 years ago now) is this: Cool — I won the British Lottery! (no, you didn’t…)

To all our friends and family, thank you for your love, support, friendship and laughter.

May 2007 be even better.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Looks like my latest article is up on Midwest Tech Journal. Check it out if you’d like to read an analysis of a zero-day PHP cross-site-scripting attack that happened on a client’s site.

Midwest Technology Journal - PHP Web Application Security: A Zero-Day Exploit Case Study

On December 29, 2004 James Bercegay of the GulfTech Security Research Team (http://www.gulftech.org/) published a security vulnerability advisory about a web-based calendar application called php-Calendar. This is the advisory notice he posted on his website, and that was also published on the 29th of December by the network security research site Zone-H.org (http://www.zone-h.org).

Popularity: 2% [?]

VoteToImpeach/ImpeachBush.org: Noted for the Consideration of the Impeachment of George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Attorney General John David Ashcroft

FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, VICE PRESIDENT RICHARD B. CHENEY, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE DONALD H. RUMSFELD, AND ATTORNEY GENERAL JOHN DAVID ASHCROFT

1. Provisions on Impeachment in the U.S. Constitution
2. British Experience With Imperial Power and Abuse
3. The Intention of the Founders to Grant the Power of Impeachment
4. Impeachment of U.S. Presidents
5. President George W. Bush and Other Named Officials Have Committed Impeachable Offenses of Unprecedented Danger to the Constitution and People of the United States
6. We Must Act Now to Prevent Catastrophe and Ensure Accountability

PROVISIONS ON IMPEACHMENT IN THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

Impeachment is the direct constitutional means for removing a President, Vice President or other civil officers of the United States who have acted or threatened acts that are serious offenses against the Constitution, its system of government, or the rule of law, or that are conventional crimes of such a serious nature that they would injure the Presidency if there was no removal.

The power of impeachment is a vital part of the Constitution. It was among the proposals first presented to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Its terms were debated repeatedly and remained prominently in the text from the first drafts of the Constitution to the final document. Impeachment is more fully and carefully detailed in substance and procedure than any other power delegated to the Congress by the Constitution. Provisions relating to impeachment appear six times in text of the Constitution and once in an Amendment. They are:

1. Article I, which creates the legislative branch of government, in Section 2, para. 4 provides:
that the House of Representatives… “shall have the sole power of impeachment.”

2. Article I, Section 3, para. 6 provides:
“The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.”
3. Article I, Section 3, paragraph 7 provides:
Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.”

4. Article II, which creates the Executive branch, in Section 2 provides the President:
…shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

5. Article II, Section 4 provides:
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of , Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Allegations:

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH AND OTHER NAMED OFFICIALS OF THE UNITED STATES HAVE COMMITTED IMPEACHABLE OFFENSES OF UNPRECEDENTED DANGER TO THE CONSTITUTION AND PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.

Draft Articles of Impeachment of President George W. Bush and other named officials of the United States charge the most serious crimes known to law and history. Nothing in the experience of the impeachment power under the Constitution compares. The conduct charged threatens the Constitution, the United Nations, the rule of law and the lives of unknown thousands, or millions of people by their act and example.

The alleged impeachable acts of President George W. Bush include:

1. Ordering and directing “first strike” war of aggression against Afghanistan causing thousands of deaths;

2. Removing the government of Afghanistan by force and installing a government of his choice;

3. Authorizing daily intrusions into Iraqi airspace and aerial attacks including attacks on alleged defense installations in Iraq which have killed hundreds of people in time of peace;

4. Authorizing, ordering and condoning attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq on civilians, civilian facilities and locations where civilian casualties are unavoidable;

5. Threatening the use of nuclear weapons and ordering preparation for their use;

6. Threatening the independence and sovereignty of Iraq by belligerently proclaiming his personal intention to change its government by force;

7. Authorizing, ordering and condoning assassinations, summary executions, murder, kidnappings, secret and other illegal detentions of individuals, torture and physical and psychological coercion of prisoners;

8. Authorizing, ordering and condoning violations of rights of individuals under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eight Amendments to the Constitution and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and other international protections of human rights;

9. Authorizing, directing and condoning bribery and coercion of individuals and governments to obtain his war ends;

10. Making, ordering and condoning false statements and propaganda and concealing information vital to public discussion and informed judgment to create a climate of fear and hatred and destroy opposition to his war goals.

President Bush is accused of Crimes Against Peace, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. No crimes are greater threats to the Constitution of the United States, the United Nation Charter, the rule of law or the future of humanity.

MAXIMUM EFFORT TO SECURE FULL CONSIDERATION OF IMPEACHMENT IS THE DUTY OF EVERYONE.

Impeachment is the means by which We The People of the United States and our elected representatives in Congress can prevent further crimes by the President and the human catastrophe they threaten and force accountability for crimes committed.

Congressional proceedings for impeachment can bring about open, fearless consideration of the most dangerous acts and threats ever committed by an American President. If courageously pursued, they can save our Constitution, the United Nations, the rule of law, the lives of countless people and leave open the possibility of peace on earth. Each of us must take a stand on impeachment now, or bear the burden of having failed to speak in this hour of maximum peril.

- - Ramsey Clark
January 15, 2003

Note - this was prepared in January 2003. Obviously much more has happened since, and much worse. Break out the <h1> and pass it on:

IMPEACH BUSH

Popularity: 1% [?]

IMPEACH BUSH

It is time to impeach Bush, Cheney, and his cabinet for lying. Or incompetence. Or lying. Whichever it is. As a state trooper once asked me, after I hit a car in front of me, “Were you driving too fast, or were you following too close?” There is no escaping true, karmic responsibility.

IMPEACH BUSH

Pass it on.

Popularity: 1% [?]

It always gives me a certain amount of satisfaction when an idea comes and Google yields 0 results. It’s happened to me a couple of times. One was when I started Securanix - a network security services company back in 2001.

And, this evening, the same thing for the latest project. This one isn’t under the super-duper-stealth wrapping, so it’s kind of cool to post this screenshot here:

Popularity: 1% [?]

Interview with Chuck D & Hank Shocklee of Public Enemy

How Copyright Law Changed Hip Hop

An interview with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Hank Shocklee

[ by Kembrew McLeod ]

When Public Enemy released It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, in 1988, it was as if the album had landed from another planet. Nothing sounded like it at the time. It Takes a Nation came frontloaded with sirens, squeals, and squawks that augmented the chaotic, collaged backing tracks over which P.E. frontman Chuck D laid his politically and poetically radical rhymes. He rapped about white supremacy, capitalism, the music industry, black nationalism, and–in the case of “Caught, Can I Get a Witness?”– digital sampling: “CAUGHT, NOW IN COURT ‘ CAUSE I STOLE A BEAT / THIS IS A SAMPLING SPORT / MAIL FROM THE COURTS AND JAIL / CLAIMS I STOLE THE BEATS THAT I RAIL … I FOUND THIS MINERAL THAT I CALL A BEAT / I PAID ZERO.”

In the mid- to late 1980s, hip-hop artists had a very small window of oppor-tunity to run wild with the newly emerging sampling technologies before the record labels and lawyers started paying attention. No one took advantage of these technologies more effectively than Public Enemy, who put hundreds of sampled aural fragments into It Takes a Nation and stirred them up to create a new, radical sound that changed the way we hear music. But by 1991, no one paid zero for the records they sampled without getting sued. They had to pay a lot.

After reading this article it occurred to me that blogs today are somewhat similar to old-school hip hop sampling — we take snippets that are interesting, use them as a background for our own musings layered on top.

Popularity: 1% [?]