Making some good progress in the backend here, all the posts now are run through the database. I am working on tags at the moment. Next will be working out the article system.

Fox News is sucking so much shit it makes my face hurt. I don't mean that in the oh they suck way, which they do, but in the they are so full of shit they are sucking shit out of other peoples asses way. God damn. Stop. Being. Such. Idiots.

A little late but here are a few of the things I found interesting on the net this week: Are viruses the ancestors of all life on earth?, Mormon's and DNA, Google releases more widgets, A decentralized internet?

Also I meant to post this last week but here is a quick rundown with links on the big discussion across the blogsphere about the supposed gatekeepers of the blogsphere. Whether it is about the long tail, or the short head, or A-list, B-list, or C-list. It all stems from the same idea, that there are a few blogs which have tremendous traffic and wield considerable power in possibly aiming that traffic at other blogs. What typically happens, as happens with most things social, is these high profile blogs tend to point their links to other high profile blogs. This social schema is better known by the power law. They perpetuate the traffic in the circle of A-list blogs, while the other blogs see significantly less traffic. These blogs with low traffic are in what is considered the long tail, the vast number of blogs which individually have few links into them and thus have low traffic but interestingly comprise more total traffic than the short head. More activity happens under the surface even if the surface seems more turbulent.

Some people just don't get it. This war on terror is not like any war we've ever fought. Past powers given to the president during a time of war do not apply this time. This will be a long war, the longest war we've ever fought, if it ever ends. In some ways it is like the war on drugs. We may never 'win' the war on terror just like we will never win the war on drugs. It isn't about some end goal, its about a continuous goal. One in which we must strive to uphold by continuously being vigililant.

We can't give up civil liberties temporarily so we can fight the war on terror more effectively simply because we will be giving up these civil liberties for generations if not forever. We have to find ways to fight against terrorism effectively without hurting this country and turning our backs on the foundation on which this country stands. The war on terror is about not losing the things which make this country great: freedom, security, and equality.

When I talk about security I mean being secure in your home and possessions, and these days communication and discrimination against those who would take them or abuse. This includes freedom and security against government action. We are all equal under these privileges and duties. None are above the law.

Which is why the Congress needs to reign in the executive powers on this administration. The president cannot be allowed to go above the law and despite what others may say executive privilege when there are laws in place to limit the president do not trump the law.

Someone made the point that democracy is not necessarily bad and freedom is not necessarily good. It's not a good thing to allow people the freedom to kill others. This may be true, but the points I was making was that fundamentally freedom is better than democracy. If a people in a democracy vote to allow mistreatment of woman that's not a good thing either and is strictly against the notion of freedom. The point can be made that you need to restrict some freedom to collect taxes and keep a society functioning. But this argument does not carry that things like oppression or religious persecution are necessary. These things are evil. Freedom opposes all these things, democracy doesn't.

Yes, I've finally bought the domain indeepthought.org. I bought the domain through goDaddy.com and am being hosted by some friends over at henge.org. They've got cold fusion set up for me so stay tuned as I write the code that will replace this site.

Here's this weeks blogs I found interesting: That's right Christopher Walken seems to be running for president, Paul Montgomery complains about the Gillmor Gang podcast (my comments: 1), Human vs. Animal Charity (my comments: 1, 2), The Death of the Movie Blockbuster (my comments: 1), Wonkette: Chatology, Tech you didn't know you needed?, Daily Kos comments on FISA