The first amendment is a wonderful thing.
The war over what kind of social control our government exerts is one that has our rights as its casualties. This is true whether it's the social control the 'left' wants to exert in the form of welfare, art sponsorship, and other programs, or the control the 'right' wants to exert in the form of censorship, and laws outlawing 'bad' behavior that doesn't hurt anybody except possibly the person who did the 'bad' thing.
My hope is that people will realize that attempting to use their government as a means of controlling society to their own ends is dangerous and self-defeating.
Taiwan is being wrongfully snubbed by us in an effort to please China. We might have good reasons to be friends with a bully, but we shouldn't be catering to the bully's obnoxious behavior. The following link is an effort by the Taiwanese to explain their predicament to the world, and the citizens of the US in particular.
Java is a programming language that has generated an immense amount of interest in the past couple of years. It has achieved a level of sustained hyping that can only be compared with Microsoft's Windoze 95 marketing campaign.
Despite the hype, I rather like the ideas in Java. None of them are especially new, although the idea of combining them is. They have been brought together at a time when the industry is in desperate need of them.
Java
Dilbert is a cartoon that is so close to an accurate depiction of real life that it is both hilarious and scary at the same time. Luckily, my current company is generally free of the idiotic mismanagement that plagues every day of Dilbert's life.
Of the last 14 ammendments to the constitution, 9 have included clauses granting new rights to congress. I find this a disturbing trend.
Most recently, there have been proposals before congress to pass an ammendment banning the burning of the flag. I find this IMMENSELY disturbing.