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There ought to be a law against comic strips this funny.

I was browsing my server logs recently when I came upon this entry:

halhoupro3.halliburton.com – – [09/Nov/2005:06:17:58 -0800] “GET /random/jenna.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 24414 “http://images.devilfinder.com/go.php” “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; Q312461; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)”

Hmm…Make of this what you will.

I found this blurb in a discussion group, so I thought I’d share my comments.

The 2000 presidential election was a good test for our democracy. The country is becoming more and more diverse. With each day more come in, thus increasing the diversity. Diversity of culture is not bad. It is the diversity of political beliefs that cause the problems. When diversity reaches all times high little to none are pleased.

When you say that the diversity of political beliefs causes problems, are you aware that it is such diversity that defines democracy? One of the cornerstones of democracy is the right to associational autonomy, i.e. the right to form interest groups. If, for instance, a nation were governed by one monopolistic political party or interest group, its political system could not be defined as a democracy. Our democratic guarantee of associational autonomy ensures the diversity of interest groups and political parties.

Perhaps the term “polarization” was the term you meant to use. Some are of the belief that our nation is politically polarized like never before, with liberals and conservatives perpetually fighting each other. Yet razor-thin popular vote margins — such as what Florida experienced in 2000 — are not necessarily the indicator of such polarization. It simply means that the two major political parties were about equally represented in the election. Correlatively, landslide victories, such as Reagan (1984), Nixon (1972), or Roosevelt (1932) do not necessarily ensure political peace and harmony. In fact, quite often the opposite is true.

I’m interested in your solution to your statement that the “diversity of political beliefs … cause the problems”. Would you prefer that everyone hold the same political beliefs? If this were so, by logical extension, there would be one political party, one presidential nominee on the ballot, et cetera.

I’m probably going to change my mind and remove this picture, so enjoy it while you can.

While some guests at the party actually had the gall to recycle their costumes from last year, Annie and I were determined to be original. She went as a “bridal shower” and wore her tiara and veil along with a poofy bathrobe. I told her beforehand, “Annie, no one’s going to know what you are unless you tell them!” Sure enough…

Someone came as a deviled egg — a gigantic egg costume with red horns and a pitchfork — very clever. A black wig got passed around — and I happened to be near a camera when I embellished my costume with it.

Bugzilla #313438.

I have Marcus Meier’s CD One Spirit available to the first person who contacts me with his/her mailing address. It’s actually not a bad album — all instrumentals, very acoustic-driven, and reminds me of something you’d want to play in an antique store or boutique. It was recorded, mixed and mastered at Dwelling Place Studios. Players include Dave Wiens, Luke Hendrickson, Josh Davis, Anna Brinkman, Art Lindholm, and Steve Freeman. Tracks: “His Light on my face”, “One Spirit”, “New Beginnings”, “Waiting”, “Classic C”, “Interlude”, and “Leaping Over the Mountains.” Total time: 46:09.

Marcus is also a member of Merchant Band, a group with Brit-pop and American rock sounds.

One annoying aspect of B&N’S search bar is that the default search category is “Books”. In comparison, Amazon’s default search category is everything — “Amazon.com”. B&N users are automatically restricted in their searching. Amazon has left the default search at a broad level, and lets the user restrict the search as necessary. Amazon’s search is more versatile — it allows you to search by ALL categories at once. B&N doesn’t even let you do that — as far as I know. It may be a minor point, but it amounts to obfuscation on the part of the seller. The quicker customers can find what they’re looking for, the more likely they are actually stay and purchase and not surf away to other sites. Amazon knows this. Barnes and Noble is beginning to find this out.

Krauthhammer: Withdraw this nominee.

There are 1,084,504 lawyers in the United States. What distinguishes Harriet Miers from any of them, other than her connection with the president? To have selected her, when conservative jurisprudence has J. Harvie Wilkinson, Michael Luttig, Michael McConnell and at least a dozen others on a bench deeper than that of the New York Yankees, is scandalous.

Sadly, what qualifies Miers is her sex — if she were a man, Bush wouldn’t have given her a second thought. When O’Connor retired, it’s as if Bush were required to maintain a Supreme Court that is 22% female.

I took off the entire day today to oversee the installation of new ceramic tile in my kitchen and bathroom. Over the weekend, my dad and Annie came over and helped me scrape up the old vinyl flooring. What a pain! It was worth it though, because it was old, yellowed, stained, and ugly. Good riddance.

The workers are coming back on Tuesday to do the grouting, put the bathroom door back on, move the appliances, et cetera.

I know this article is a bit old, but for some reason it’s remained in my mind as the epitome of The Onion‘s peculiar brand of humor. An excerpt:

As a patriot and true American, my heart sings at the thought of the Pentagon, and the zealous, calculating measures undertaken by the proud military bureaucracy of this great superpower. I feel a surge of pride when I think about our high-tech GBU laser-guided bombs, capable of carrying a 2,000-pound warhead. I tied a ribbon around my tree for the safe return of our nation’s F-16s, because our military aircraft are instrumental to finishing our work in Iraq.

Source: I Support The Occupation Of Iraq, But I Don’t Support Our Troops