George W. Bush or John Kerry? Who will it be this year?


Whoever you vote for, you’re voting for the same family. President George W. Bush is a descendent of Edmund Reade and Elizabeth Cooke — as is Massachusetts Senator John Kerry.

They also boast similar life achievements. Both men graduated from Yale University (within two years of each other) and both are running for president in 2004.


Odd how things work out.

What is the ‘Right to Privacy’?  I think it is somewhat
abstract in the minds of the general public because it does not convey one
coherent concept.  Some rights to privacy are protected by the right
of publicity which prevents the unauthorized commercial use of an
individual’s name, likeness, or other recognizable aspects of one’s persona. It
gives an individual the exclusive right to license the use of their identity for
commercial promotion.

But what about privacy?  I think most lawyers will agree
the right to privacy is a common
law.  Pete Landry defines a common law as one being derived from the
"common" people versus legislation, which comes from the
"experts".  I think the origins of that term comes from England
when some laws were formed by non-royal commoners.

So this assumes that most citizens of the USA believe that the right to privacy
is a commonly held right, a common law.  The right to privacy isn’t
specifically mentioned or covered in the constitution.  Samuel D. Warren
and Louis D. Brandeis published
a paper in 1890 in Boston that I believe covers some interesting aspects.


Why do I care?  For the last two years, I have tried and
failed to come up with an internal coherent explanation of my right to
privacy.  I know that I feel I have the right to privacy from intrusion not
only by other private citizens, but also from the government.  I’m no
terrorist or criminal. I have nothing to hide, but where does the right of the
government to protect its citizens have to yield to my privacy.  Likewise,
where does my right to privacy have to yield to the government’s right to
protect its citizens?

Publaw has published an
article entitled "The Right to Privacy In the Workplace In The
Information Age".  I think it is a good read.


I’ll end this with one of my favorites. This one is from Ben Franklin:
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

  - Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.

I woke up early this morning. I’m not sure why. I got on my computer to check my mail and see who was on IRC at 7AM. To my surprise a message was waiting for me in IRC. Some guy in Turkey was there talking about this, that, and the other thing. Anyway, he ended with a remark saying something rather threatening to the president. I save d the conversation, logged the IP address, and did an ARIN whois lookup on it. I waited until 8:15AM for the local FBI office to open up, and then I called them.


I handed over the information to them like a responsible citizen (just doing my part!). I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised at their professionalism and vigor, but I was. They were very eager to get this information and find out as much as possible. A couple of hours later, I got a call labeled “unknown”. It was the secret service in Washington, D.C.. “WOW” I thought. Amazing how fast these guys operate.


I’ve never spoken to anyone in the secret service before.


By the way, I got a job offer today. Mucho excitement here.

News agencies have made a big to-do of the death of Ronald Reagan lately, but in
my mind, today his death was overshadowed by the death of Ray Charles. 
Obviously there’s no comparison between what Reagan did for our country as a
president and what Ray did for music, but I honor Ray Charles today
anyway.  Plenty of other sites today will be detailing the contributions of
Reagan, but I will devote my time today to Ray Charles.

Ray Charles, the Grammy-winning crooner who blended gospel and blues in such
crowd-pleasers as "What’d I Say" and ballads like "Georgia on My
Mind," died today.  He was 73.  He death was due to a
liver disease he had developed.

Charles’ last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood on April 30, when
the city of Los Angeles designated the singer’s studios, built 40 years ago in
central Los Angeles, as a historic landmark.

Charles went blind when he was 7, became an orphan at the age of 15, and grew up
very poor.

Charles won nine of his 12 Grammy Awards between 1960 and 1966, including the
best R&B recording three consecutive years ("Hit the Road Jack,"
"I Can’t Stop Loving You" and "Busted").

"I was born with music inside me. That’s the only explanation I know
of," Charles said in his 1978 autobiography, "Brother Ray."
"Music was one of my parts … Like my blood. It was a force already with
me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me, like food or
water."

Today is a sad day indeed.  The great musicians are dying, and being
replaced with stepford musicians (britney spears for example).

Posted here is a picture showing the likeness between Alan Greenspan and a baby wombat. I just happened to run across these two pictures at the same time, had a quick laugh, and thought how interesting it might be to post them together.

There’s nothing really significant about the wombat, other than the fact that it’s a wombat. Greenspan on the other hand…


Greenspan said the Federal Reserve will do ‘what is required’ to keep inflation in check if the forecast behind its view that interest rates can rise gradually proves wrong. Even with this announcement, Dow Jones gained 40+ points. 
Click the picture for an expanded view of the Greenspan/wombat comparison.