11/15   http://www.stopthecartax.com/petitions
        \_ voting themselves largesse from the public treasury?
           \_ no. you're thinking of welfare and other 'entitlements'.  you
              have it totally backwards.

11/15   Whoa.  Anyone else taken a look at the Energy Bill going through
        Congress at the moment? Biggest. Piece. Of Pork. EVER.
        \_ Dude, you should've seen the pork chops at the DC last night!
        \_ I think I should get a tax credit for my high fiber diet.  gas gas
           gas!
        \_ Not really.  Same old shit as any other time since we've had a
           department of energy or other large federal agencies.

11/15   Iraq's al Qaeda links:
        http://tinyurl.com/v2r5 (weeklystandard.com)
        \_ you may find this site useful:
           http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM
           it's a news site roughly as objective and mainstream
           as the Weekly Standard.
        \_ of course there was a link.  it's called "enemies."
        \_ so why isn't this on CNN instead of just a conservative web site?
           also, "top secret" memos usually don't get leaked
           the author of the memo is also a dyed in the wool neocon
           http://middleeastinfo.org/article701.html
           \_ Doh! DOD STATEMENT ON NEWS REPORTS OF AL-QAIDA AND IRAQ
              CONNECTIONS
              http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2003/nr20031115-0642.html
              So the memo is real but it is raw data and draws
              no conclusions.
              \_ "News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed
                 new information with respect to contacts between al-Qaida
                 and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are
                 inaccurate."
                 \_ But everyone knows that the DoD is full of Godless
                    Commuinists that just want to run down GWB, while
                    the Weekly Standard is an objective newspaper
                    that only prints The Truth and is Fair and Balanced.

11/15   I read that Jesus was a Jew. Can anyone explain this? I don't
        know much about religion. TIA.
        \_ Christ is accepted by Christians as the first coming of
           the Messiah, the son of God.  The Jews view him as
           another prophet (eg. Abraham), not the son of God.  The
           \_ Um, no.  The Muslims accept him as a prophet, but most Jews
              accept him as a rabbi, not a prophet (and neither the Muslims or
              Jews accept him on equal footing with Abraham).
           Jews (and Romans) had Christ crucified because his doctrine
           \_ Umm, no.  The Jews did not crucify Christ.  This is FUD used to
              justify anti-semitism.
              \_ What you say is true, but misleading. The Jews did not
                 crucify Christ, the Romans did, but they were carrying
                 out Jewish law and will when they crucified Xt. The crime
                 Xt was crucified for was blasphemy, a crime in Jewish,
                 not Roman, law. See Matthew 26-27. I do agree that this,
                 unfortunately and unfairly, has been used to justify
                 anti-semitism.
                 \_ what you say is true but misleading.  Jesus' death is far
                    more complicated than Pilate simply following Jewish law.
                    it would take hours to explain in person.  a single
                    passage in M26-27 doesn't cut it.  life is never that
                    simple.  the reality is that Jesus was asking for it
                    starting with the donkey ride into the city which was a
                    known prophecy for the Coming and getting under the skin
                    of every powerful person he came across and always doing
                    or saying the thing that was most likely to get him
                    killed right up to his death.  he could've left the city
                    at any time in the week before his death but didn't,
                    even though a child could've seen the consequences of his
                    actions.  or we could just say the Jews killed Jesus and
                    all hate the Jews and be done with it.  that's the easy
                    way out.
                    \_ Fair enough. My main point is that it's not effective
                       to say the original statement is false because
                       it has been used to justify anti-semitism. The
                       original statement has some truth to it (though,
                       as you point it it is much more complicated), and
                       it has unfairly been used to justify anti-semitism.
                    \_ The Jews chose between Christ and
                       and a thief, the chose to crucifiy Christ.  No
                       need to sugar-coat it or make excuses.
                 \_ christ christ christ christ fuck fuck fuck fuck
                    maybe you should take a long hard look at your
                    dumbass faith.  do you really think your god cares
                    if you post his name to the motd?  does that actually
                    make sense to you?
                    \_ What are you talking about? I'm not Christian.
                    \_ You pathetic abject atheist.  Nothing but
                       a shell of hedonistic addictions.  Sorry,
                       but the West you live in is the living
                       embodiment of monotheistic, primarily
                       Christian, dogma.  The West has prospered
                       because of these tenets, not in spite of
                       them.  But of course you are too smart...
           and claim was heretical in their view.  In the very early
           days of Christianity only Jews were allowed to convert
           Christianity, however after Jesus's death the apostles
           spread the gospels to gentiles.
           He was viewed by his non-believing contemparies as
           a Jewish prophet.
        \_ Before Christ, the Jews and the Christians were one.
           The word of God was with the Jewish people.  Jesus Christ
           was born practicing the Jewish religion.  Jesus was even
           circumcised.  Christ went to the temples, read scriptures,
           and was a loyal Jew, because the word of God was with the
           Jewish people, passed down through Abraham (today's Jews
           and today's Christians both value Abraham, Moses and others
           very much).  Later, after Christ's death, some Jews didn't
           believe Christ was the Messiah.  However, many (including
           non-Jews, the Gentiles) converted.  The people who converted
           and believed that Christ was the Messiah are called Christians.
           In the Christian Bible, the "Old Testament" and the Jewish
           Holy Books are virtually identical.
        \_ The New Testament is actually very short, and you could read just the
           Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and the book of Acts pretty
           quickly.  There are free copies of it online and just about anyone
           can give you a hardcopy free.

11/15   California budget head calls deficit 'staggering'
        http://www.forbes.com/newswire/2003/11/15/rtr1149508.html
        Recall Arnold, bring back Davis!!!
        \_ good link.  yeah we need 4 more years of davis to reach that
           $62b budget gap. bring back davis. im finding a new state.

11/15   So I have AT&T wireless and the signal is far worse at my apt (in the
        LA area) than it was a year ago.  I called AT&T to ask about why
        the service is worse than before.  The representative explained
        that they are probably increasing GSM in my area.  And that because
        the GSM signals are stronger, somehow the TDMA (or whatever the old
        system is called) signals are weaker.  So I asked her if they are
        taking down the TDMA towers.  She said no, but that the GSM makes the
        TDMA weaker.  I'm not an EE guy, but that doesn't make sense to me.
        Am I missing something?  Or was she just stupid?  My thinking is
        that the signal is crappy because there are too many users for a given
        tower.
        \_ Portable Wireless Numbers are coming Nov 24th. Wait until then
           and threaten to leave to another service provider. They'll
           probabbly try to get you to stay by offering you a free GSM
           phone.
        \_ They would never take down a tower, because they are expensive to
           put up.  They might, however reallocate some spectrum that was
           formerly TDMA to GSM uses.  The more users=worse signal argument
           seems to most plausible, though.
        \_ You too?  My old tdma at&t phone isn't what it used to be either.
          \_ I called AT&T again and this time was fortunate enough to
             actually talk to someone intelligent.  He thought that the
             problem was that my phone was old.  He was very confident that
             the existence of GSM would have no affect on TDMA.  I've had
             the same phone for 5 or 6 years.  The phones aren't that
             expensive and the battery life will be much better than my old
             phone.  So I think I'll get a new phone before too long. -op
             \_ Ever heard of a 'Preferred Roaming List'?  Ask your operator
                how to do a 'PRL Update'.  This will make your phone aware of
                towers that have been added since you bought the phone.  You
                should ideally update your phone's PRL every 3-6 months.  It's
                like getting a fresh routing table.  If it's been 5-6 years I'm
                not surprised your phone can't find a tower.
             \_ When AT&T first started the GSM service, I know some people
                were frustrated that the phones would try to hang on to a
                poor GSM signal instead of switching to the stronger TDMA
                network when available.  Has anyone had good luck with the
                AT&T GSM network of late in northern CA?
                \_ I don't think GSM phones have TDMA capabilities. It
                   can't just switch off to a different mode on-the-fly.
                   If it did, that would be one damn expensive phone.
                   \_ why so?  --knows nothing about phones
                \_ The person I talked to at the time had one, it seemed
                   like the std...  Didn't get the details, though.
        \_ Verizon has the best coverage

11/15   My "home" page keeps being set to something I don't want it to be.
        Apparently, some web page is doing it.  Or maybe I got some virus
        that keeps reseting it.  Is there a way to force it never to switch
        my start-up page?
        \_ Clean the viruses and spyware and other crap off your computer.
           I doubt that's the only thing on there, just the only thing you
           noticed.  Let us know how much shit was there when you're done.
        \_ Norton etc don't usually fix these sorts of problems. But
           AdAware does. I switched from IE to Firebird and don't have
           those problems anymore. I use IE for sites that use ActiveX
           and for the rare site that doesn't work properly in Firebird
           (eg http://kinkos.com)
           \_ Set your security (ha ha) level in IE to prompt you before
              loading ActiveX stuff.  It may be a little annoying from
              time to time, but it will prevent most tinkering with your
              home page preferences.
        \_ Use Mozilla / Firebird.  For some reason, Internet Explorer has
           all sort of security bugs that allow people set your home page
           to soemthing else.  Go do a google on "on line virus scan" and
           use the TrendMicro's free on-line virus scanning service. I have
           found that Trendmicro is doing better job at removing certain type
           of backdoor / trojan horse than Norton. While you are at it,
           of backdoor / trojan horse than Northan. While you are at it,
           download "Spybot Search and Destroy."  It's free and it get rid of
           many spyware from your computer as well.
                \_ I use IE with all cookie settings set to "Prompt" and
                        together with Google toolbar swatting pop-ups, I've
                        yet to experience an issue.
                   \_ Run Spybot and Trendmicro and see if you got anything.
                        Much of Internet Explorer's security issue is not
                        in the cookies, but it's DCOM object and
                        javascript exploit.
           \_ How does Spybot compare to AdAware? Has anyone used both?
              \_ don't know.  Is Adware free?
                 \_ the basic kill-adware part is.  the commercial product
                    does useless crap like sit in the backgroind doing
                        \_ spybot is free
                           \_ so is adaware.  your point?
              \_ don't know.  Is Adware free?
                    whatever.  the free product does everything you need.

11/16   http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2003/11/14/2003075781
        Gigolo school raided by police.

11/16   http://www.pantsfactory.org - a left leaning farq!
        \_ Huh, it seems you can post anonymously.
           \_ Yes that was by design.

11/16   BushCo lies are finally catching up to them. Americans are slow
        but not *that* slow:
        http://csua.org/u/50k

11/16   Anyone else keep getting spam mail directed to mredison? All my
        spam has the header
        To: <mredison@soda.csua.berkeley.edu>
        \_ ED! ED! is the STANDARD spam mail victim!