Why is it I can never access Al Jazeera? I can’t ever seem to access their English site either.

Ever since 9/11, I’ve been quite curious as to the content of their website. I want to know what they report and since I don’t see myself buying Arabic Satellite TV anytime soon or learning how to read (or speak) Arabic, I probably won’t get to ever regularly see what type of things they cover. If you know how I might be able to see their website or even a cache of some of their content, I would be eternally grateful. Leave your comments.


Update: This is probably a temporary link but you can currently access Al Jazeera by using This link. It even says at the top of this page it is temporary, due to high traffic, and the main page still doesn’t load. They need to get it together.


Update: I was able to finally go to aljazeera to load, and I signed up for an email address: ramdac@aljazeera.com. Weird. Try it out. I’ll let you know if I get any mail.

Judge declares mistrial after juror enjoys a beer

March 18, 2004 (Wheeling, West Virginia) — A juror could get a little thirsty listening to all those witnesses. But a long morning in court is no excuse for a beer.

A West Virginia judge has declared mistrial in a drug case, after a juror was spotted having a brewski during lunch. Judge James Mazzone says the thirsty juror was reported to a bailiff.



No charges are expected to be filed against the juror, who wasn’t named. Mazzone says he’ll schedule a new trail for defendant William “Willie” Mayfield, who’s charged with intent to distribute both marijuana and crack cocaine.

This truly is the only way to make it through a hearing.

Today marks the one year anniversary of the bombings, and the beginning of the war, in Iraq.
I’ve nothing else really to say about it.

You remember Mrs. Rowland, right? I posted a story about her last Friday.
She’s back in the news.Yahoo reports that she had a prior conviction of child endangerment.


“The 2000 conviction of Melissa Rowland stemmed from a supermarket incident in which she punched her daughter several times in the face after the toddler picked up a candy bar and began eating it, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. Witnesses said Rowland screamed, “You ate the candy bar and now I can’t buy my cigarettes.“”


An Allegheny County, Pa., court sentenced Rowland to five years probation for simple assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child. Her daughter was turned over to a child-welfare agency.

“In order to understand what a fallacy is, one must understand what an argument
is. Very briefly, an argument consists of one or more premises and one
conclusion. A premise is a statement (a sentence that is either true or false)
that is offered in support of the claim being made, which is the conclusion
(which is also a sentence that is either true or false).”

I’ve added a “Fallacy Tutorial” here on the website. It was originally written by Dr. Michael C.
Labossiere.

Dr. Michael C. Labossiere is the author of a Macintosh tutorial named Fallacy Tutorial Pro 3.0,
and has kindly agreed to allow the text of his work to appear here on ramdac.org in electronic form. It remains © Copyright 1995 Michael C. Labossiere, with distribution restrictions. If you have questions or comments about this work, please direct them either to me at ramdac@ramdac.org
or to Dr. Labossiere (ontologist@aol.com).

From time to time, I read the MSN:Women articles. Why? Because a great deal of what they have to say is
just as important for men to read as it is for women. I think for a man to really appreciate a woman, one has to educate himself about
them, the pains through which they go, and the wonderful things they know. What’s more important than learning about women, is learning about your woman.
For me, reading MSN:Women is about learning to be a better friend and to learn how to show my love.

MSN has an interesting article about “The 20 Wisest Things Our Mother Taught Us”,
written by Nancy Evans.
I’ve summarized the 20 things here. If you want detail about them, please visit the MSN link above. It’s definitely worth the read, and some of them *need* clarification.

• About Life
  • 1. “You aren’t getting anything done just sitting there.”
  • 2. “Appreciate all the blessings that you receive in life, and don’t bemoan the things you can’t have. Focus instead on things you have influence in.”
  • 3. “Almost anyone can take just about everything away from you — but your education, once you have it, no one can take it away from you.”
• About Men
  • 4. “If a guy really wants to talk to you, he’ll call.”
  • 5. “You can’t change someone who doesn’t want to change.”
  • 6. “Never count on a man being around forever.”
  • 7. “If you settle for less that’s all you’re going to get.”
  • 8. “Don’t marry the man you can live with - marry the man you can’t live without.”
• About Marriage
  • 9. “Don’t sweat the small stuff in your marriage. Respect one another and express your respect daily. Pick your battles by level of importance to you.”
  • 10. “When you marry, you marry the whole family.”
  • 11. “Never shine your boyfriend or husband’s shoes.”
• About the Kitchen
  • 12. “Always organize yourself before any big occasion.”
  • 13. “If you ever want to know what’s going on in your daughter’s life, make stuffed grape leaves.”
• About Looking Our Best
  • 14. “Wash your face every morning and every night.”
  • 15. “Makeup should enhance what you already have; learning to play up your best features is always more appealing than trying to plaster on a look that’s just not you.”
  • 16. “Stay out of the sun.”
• About Being a Mother
  • 17. “I am the best advocate for my children.”
  • 18. “If you let baby cry for a couple of minutes while you take care of your first child, the baby won’t remember waiting.”
  • 19. “Make hay while the sun shines.”
  • 20. “Always provide unconditional love for your children, no matter what the situation. Even if they seem to have turned against you and say mean things, remember that a mother’s love is eternal, and one day they will come back to you with the same love you have given them throughout their lives, and that love will be given to their children as well.”

"Religious Moralism" is to blame.  That’s what George Carlin
said.  When asked about the new "indecency laws" being presented
in congress he responded by saying he blamed religious moralism, media
commercialism and election-year politics.

So what does the 66-year-old Carlin think of the current handwringing over what
is indecent, profane, obscene, immoral, lewd or insulting?
"More of the same, more of the same. What are we, surprised?" Carlin
told The Associated Press on Friday

"The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of these things — bad language and whatever — it’s all caused by one basic thing, and that is: religious superstition. … There’s an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body. … It’s reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have.”

Mix that with TV or radio, and you’ve got a problem, he said. 

“What I always remind people is, radio and television and — as it happens — newspapers and magazines too, are advertising media. … When you have commercialism involved you have the kind of fear that advertisers are very afraid of offending some potential customer. They don’t want to lose a sale. So they have this need to inspect and clean up and watch the content in order not to hurt their own sales. It’s based on success at the cash register.

He did end with this: "Society can be counted on to let
this fade."
Here
is the full story

A far-reaching FBI proposal would require all broadband Net providers,
including cable modem and DSL companies, to rewire their networks to support
easy wiretapping by police. The proposal would give police ready
access to any form of Internet-based communications.  This proposal was
given to the FCC and f approved as drafted, the proposal could dramatically
expand the scope of the agency’s wiretap powers, raise costs for cable broadband
companies and complicate Internet product development.  Not just
that.  I am beginning to question the powers of the FCC. Even Colin Powell
has called into question the powers of the FCC over communication.


"The FCC should ignore pleas about national security and sophisticated
criminals because sophisticated parties will use noncompliant VoIP, available
open source and offshore," said Jim Harper of Privacilla.org,
a privacy advocacy Web site. "CALEA for VoIP will only be good for busting
small-time bookies, small-time potheads and other nincompoops."


One unusual section of the FBI letter is that it claims the bureau is seeking
to protect Americans’ privacy rights.  Sorry, my bullshit-ometer just went
off.

This is crazy.  Read more here:

http://news.com.com/2100-7352-5137344.html?tag=nl

http://news.com.com/2100-1028-5172948.html

FBI Adds to Wiretap(Slashdot)

I saw these notable quotes on a forum today. I thought they were an interesting read:

“When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” - Thomas Jefferson



“The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.”
-Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-188



“The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.” -Justice William O. Douglas



“Whether Bu$h lied or not is certainly an opinion.” - Tom Hicks



“Don’t let Dean hear that, or he’ll tear the head off a goat.” - JonnyHotcakes

I don’t know who Jonny Hotcakes is. Perhaps someone could clue me in. I’m too lazy to google it.

How do you balance the right of a woman to decide the fate of her body against the responsibilities that come with child-bearing?

This is an extremely touchy subject among those who believe in the “sanctity of life” (pro-lifers) and those who believe that
womens’ rights are being degredaded by those who want to make this a moral issue (pro-choice). Our laws are seemingly divided on this issue. It seems that women are allowed to choose whether or not to abort their babies, but there are also laws on the books that would prosecute a murderer who killed a pregnant mother with not one murder, but two. This is what I call legal ambiguity in America.

Let’s look at the latest issue under scrutiny between these two groups this week. Melissa Ann Rowland is being accused of murdering her fetus after doctors repeatedly told her to get a Caesarean section.
Melissa Ann Rowland, 28, was officially charged Thursday of showing “depraved indifference to human life,” ignoring medical advice to deliver her twins by C-section because she didn’t want to be scarred. One nurse told police Rowland said she would rather “lose one of the babies than be cut like that.”


This case could affect abortion rights and allow the way for prosecution of mothers who smoke or don’t follow their obstetrician’s diet. On the other hand, it highlights the level of irresponsibility with which our country seems to be riddled.

USATODAY has the story. What are your thoughts? Feel absolutely free to express your opinion. I want to hear from women on this.

Update: Here’s something to think about. What if this woman was Amish? There, they have a religious belief not to use modern technology. A C-section in that case isn’t even an option. Under those circumstances, the woman would be both legally and morally justified I’m sure. Both conservatives and liberals seem to agree on that issue. Explain how this one is different. Discuss.


Update: The biological father admitted to smoking marijuana with Melissa 3 weeks prior to delivery and said that it must have been laced with Cocaine because “that is the only way that cocaine could be in her system or in Hannah’s system.” Doctors did find traces of alcohol and cocaine in Hannah.