It’s kind of hard to believe Geraldo Rivera is still on tv. Don’t you think?

Evidently a substitute teacher in Land ‘O Lakes (yeah, the place where the butter comes from) did a magic trick in front of a middle school class. The “30 second” trick involved a toothpick disappearing and reappearing. No context was given but the trick sounds harmless enough. More than likely it was being used to gather the classes attention, it’s middle school after all. After the fact, the teacher got called into the office of the “supervisor of substitute teachers” and was told he was being accused of wizardry. According to the teacher, he thinks this will prevent him from acquiring jobs in the future.

Ok, but wizardry? Wizardry!? Are they serious? I didn’t know that Florida was the new seventeenth century Virginia where the act of witchcraft can have you burned at the stake. I’m assuming that because he was a substitute, and basically just a daily contract employee, he can’t file a wrongful termination suit since there isn’t anything to be terminated from. Maybe he can do something through the Teacher’s Union, but even then probably not. He’ll forever be known as the teacher fired for wizardry, and there something seriously messed up with that.

A little known fact about me is that I’m a very large fan of the 1986 film Short Circuit and the 1988 followup Short Circuit 2. Maybe it’s the fact that I enjoy the idea of a lovable, friendly robot constantly looking for input, or maybe it’s the undeniable charm of Steve Guttenberg trying to make money any way possible. Either way, It’s not surprising that I had two links related to Johnny 5. The first, from May of 2007, was an article on MAKE via Engadget about a guy that created a nice, working Johnny 5 out of LEGO Mindstorms pieces. Pretty impressive actually. The second Johnny 5 link sitting in Safari waiting for this moment was an article in the April 3, 2008 issue of Variety. Evidently Dimension Films acquired the rights to remake the Short Circuit film! Usually remakes are pretty crappy, but as long as it doesn’t become a straight-to-DVD pile of horse garbage, or star Shia LaBeouf, it should be worth watching.

I don’t remember when or how I found this next link, but I know it’s been sitting for awhile. It’s the website for the Newseum, which is a cool museum in DC dedicated to news. They have a very cool feature on their site that allows you to view today’s front page’s from newspapers around the globe. It does so in a sweet interactive map. Clicking the location on the map brings up a nice, full sized image from the paper. Here is the front page of the wonderful Orlando Sentinel, political commentary not included.

Finally is the way too much fun Dicewars which is basically a simplified, flash-based version of Risk. It’s a ton of fun. Unfortunately you can’t play other people, but add enough computer opponents and the game is challenging enough.

So there you have a few juicy morsels of internet goodness for your browsing pleasure. Just know that I’m not responsible should you become addicted to Dicewars or Steve Guttenberg movies.

Foreign Governments
One of the largest factors that raise our oil prices are foreign governments — and particularly their instability. Some of the largest oil producing countries are beds of international turmoil. Nigeria’s oil rich region has been captured by rival warlords who want a share in the countries oil wealth. There is Venezuela who’s extreme leftist president isn’t too fond of America and need I even mention Iran? Their president has threatened stop the exportation of oil if they are sanctioned by the United Nations. And then there is China. While it is not exactly their government that is causing the price of oil to rise but their increased prosperity. In the last few years China has jumped out of nowhere to the second most oil demanding country in the world — behind the US.

Dwindling Supply
Partially because of China’s increased demand, as well as other countries refusal to cut back (including our own), oil supplies are all but gone. If you have ever taken an economics course then you know the principle of Supply and Demand. When there is high demand and little supply the price of a product goes up. Well there you go. There is very little oil and very high demand — almost to the point where there is more demand then supply. When we reach that point and there are massive shortages around the world, the price of oil will be set by whichever country is willing to pay the most for it.

Environmental Lobbyists
Fortunately for us, we’re not to that point yet. In fact, we have enough unrefined oil to sustain us. The problem here in America is that we can’t refine it quick enough. There are only ten oil refineries in the United States. Experts have said that to adequately supply refined oil (gas, home heating, etc) to the country we would need somewhere around five times that number. Why don’t we have more refineries then? Why was the last one built in 1976? Well environmental legislation — proposed and supported by the lobbyists — have put a stranglehold on the industry, making it almost impossible to open new refining plants. There are other laws that have passed which favor the environmental groups and thus raise the price of oil as well. One such is the new ethanol fuel additive law which has been enacted in a number of states. The problem is that, while ethanol is cleaner burning and doesn’t hurt ground water, it dissolves in water. So, unlike the current additive, it can’t be piped from its point of origin to the refineries. It has to be trucked or delivered by train. Since both of these transport methods are slow and rely on the price of gasoline, can you see the catch-22 it presents?

Big Oil
Now I don’t want you getting the idea that I’m anti-environment and pro big oil because that isn’t exactly the case. Big oil is as much to blame as the environmentalists. Big oil has refused to explore cleaner, cheaper methods of fuel production and at the same time are making profits the likes of which no company has ever seen. Billion dollar profits when gas prices are through the roof? Something doesn’t seem right. Senator Charles Schumer (D – NY) has raised the question that perhaps big oil is gouging the American public. While his proposal is more then likely an election year statement, it probably has some validity. Oil refining on the whole is at about 85% capacity right now. Big oil claims this is due to needed repairs stemming from last years hurricane season. Despite their record profits, I can guarantee that the price of those repairs is built into the price of a gallon of gas. It’s no wonder the former Exxon CEO recently walked out the door with a $150 million retirement package.

Politicians
Every US senator, congressmen, and president in the last thirty years is equality to blame. Laws could have been passed requiring big oil to start researching cleaner, cheaper, and more abundant fuel sources. Thirty years ago Brazil’s government passed such a law and by the end of next year they will be 100% oil independent. Our government chose not to pass such legislation. In fact, last year Congress had a chance to finally hold big oil accountable. The CEO’s of the five largest American oil companies were called into a hearing in the Senate. While the idea sounded good, the CEO’s were never sworn in and absolutely nothing was accomplished. It was really just a big political stunt.

Oil Traders
The price of oil is controlled largely by future traders. They have bid the price of oil from roughly $20 a barrel in 2002 to it’s current record price of $75 and change. Traders say that the increase in price is due to a number of factors — most of which we looked at above. While the traders are right, it isn’t that cut and dry. The traders are also to blame. Oil is traded based on speculation and the traders speculate that the world (particularly oil producing countries) is fixing to go to hell in a hand basket. Because of this speculation, the price of oil is bid up. Yesterday, for instance, where oil hit an all time high, the price was bid up higher then it probably should have been in an effort to cover any potential weekend changes in the geopolitical atmosphere. Oil isn’t traded over the weekend so the traders bid the price up, just in case. Make’s sense right?

Ok, let’s take a quick break to look at just who we have to blame for our high fuel costs so far. We’ve got instability of oil rich nations and insane foreign leaders who control the means of production. We’ve got an extreme lack of supply spurred by increased world demand and our own countries inability to refine what supply we do have. We’ve got environmentalists and politicians to blame for that. We’ve got big oil who seems to think change is a bad thing and is making record profits off their stranglehold of the American people. We’ve got oil traders who seem to bid up the price of oil when a fuel tanker catches a flat tire en route to a service station. Is that it? Did I cover everyone? Well, not quite. I’ve got to take that finger of blame and turn it around.

Us
That’s right, you and I are to blame as well. Despite the extreme prices at the pump and in our electric bills, are we doing anything to conserve? Nope. Do we give into the fear that the supply will soon vanish and fill up our tanks and gas cans “just in case?” Yep. The argument can be made that we can’t just stop using gas and that’s true, but we can cut back. We can keep lights off, group errands together, not give into ever idiot on TV who says that there will be disruptions so go fill up now. We can use websites like Gas Buddy to find the cheapest gas and tell big oil that we’re not going to just take what is given to us. We can write our politicians and tell them we’re not going to allow them just standing ideally by smiling at the cameras. We can do what we can to reduce our individual demand.

So who is to blame for our high oil and gas prices? Well, everyone really. The fact is that oil will continue to rise, possibly to $100 a barrel by the end of the summer which translates to somewhere around $5 a gallon at the pump. As scary as that might sound, the prices will continue to rise until something is done and unfortunately, that something has be lead by us. We each have to do what we can and hope that our government, big oil, and the traders follow in line.

Blogs have come a long way since the term was coined almost 7 years ago, when blogs were mostly an extension of one’s personal journal that the world was able to access. Today, blogs have moved to become more topical in nature–just look at the different categories for this years Bloggie Awards. There is a blog for people interested in celebrity gossip, cooking tips, and advertisements–there is even a blog about designing other blogs. But a vast number of blogs out in the some 26.8 million blogs on the internet have to do with news and politics. Technorati, a sort of clearing house for the blogosphere, lists five of the internet’s ten most popular blogs are political opinion in nature.

The political blog became mainstream in America during last year’s heated Presidential election. There were bloggers situated on both sides of the isle evaluating the other sides messages, stance on issues, and ratifying their own. Since then, the blogging world has moved from just being accepted to being embraced by traditional media outlets. NBC’s Dateline features a look at the blogosphere once a week, CNN’s The Situation Room has “internet reporters” who look at bloggers opinions daily, and Slate–an online news magazine owned by the Washington Post/Newsweek has a column called “The Daily Blog” that looks at just that–what the blogosphere is talking about.

Blogs are a way for people to freely deliver information and their opinions to the world–and for the world to respond to them. This open dialog between the reader and the author has never been seen before. Traditional outlets have “letters to the editor” but never has the dialog been conducted in a real time public forum. This free exchange does not come without it’s dangers–in this case the danger is slant.

The traditional media, whether it will admit it or not, contains a bias to either the left or the right. Each paper, magazine or network has it’s own slant either subtle or great. When it comes to the blogosphere, the slant is usually pretty large–and identifiable–thanks to being comprised of opinionated postings. While this is a danger, it is also a strength. Instead of trying to cover their slant under the disguise of fair journalism, blogs embrace it as their raison d’être. This is also, in a very round about way, holding the traditional media to a higher scrutiny. Because traditional outlets are now featuring blogs on their programs and in their pages, they are–for the most part–showcasing both sides of the isle–relating opinions from all vantage points.

The blog has redefined the op-ed piece and will continue to do so in the future. Traditional outlets, in looking at the blogosphere and featuring it’s contents, will in turn be holding themselves more accountable–pushing them toward a truly unbiased relating of the news. Who would have thought the blog could be so powerful?

The chances of nuclear war escalating out of this situation are slim, but the there is another consequence to the current Iran situation–oil. Apparently 50% of the worlds oil passes through Iranian controlled ports, which means, if they wanted to, they could throw a huge wrench into the world oil market. Even though the USA doesn’t receive a single drop of Iranian oil, thanks to various trade embargoes, our price of oil will skyrocket if Iran were to slow down supply. Remember Hurricane Katrina, and the mass panic and fear that oil was going to be interrupted sending gas prices as high as $5 and $6 a gallon in some places? Yeah, we’d be looking at that again, or even worse. So you may be thinking that China and Russia wouldn’t stand for a huge cut in oil production and would step into intervene–or maybe Saudi Arabia would so as not to loose money on oil sales. Fact of the matter is no one seems to know what would happen. Russia buys oil from Iran under the table so maybe nothing would change. Fact of the matter is there are three things that need to happen in the next few months.

First, America has to address our dependency on foreign oil. This means calling the five big oil executives back to congress to testify, this time under oath. They are making money hand over foot thanks to high gas prices and congress should force them to start cutting into their prices to alleviate the price at the pump, and force them to start reinvesting some profits into alternative fuel production–we’ve got enough corn fields to produce ethanol until the cows come home, or what about hydrogen? If we force big oil to pay for the research we’ll have these technologies perfected and running safely in a few years.

Next, we need to open up oil drilling in ANWR, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Yeah, it’s a wildlife refuge in Alaska that is the ancestral home of two Indian populations. One of the two wants to allow drilling. So that makes one Indian tribe and a boat load of Democrats who constantly kill this bill in the Senate. ANWR drilling would produce one million barrels of oil a day. Granted, it isn’t much but that is one million fewer barrels we have to rely on from the seemingly endless supply of hostel oil rich countries.

The final thing we need to do is enact a regime change in Iran. Though, this time it can’t be done militarily. Iran is simply too large of a country to pull off a successful ground campaign. It would require taking all of the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan and calling up a boat load of others to pull it off successfully. This is not an option. We know it, Iran knows it, it just wont work. Even if it could, President Bush would never get congress to approve it. So you turn to the UN to place sanctions on Iran. Ok, even if Iran hadn’t recently moved all it’s money to untouchable Swiss accounts, we all know that UN sanctions are next to useless. Alright, so then how do we put pressure on Iran and remove Ahmadinejad from power? The answer lies in the successful fall of Communism fifteen years ago.

Communism fell throughout the world in just a few months because of educated students living in the Communist countries who wanted freedom from oppression. Supposedly there is a huge percentage of the Iranian population that desire the same freedoms though have yet to come forward and act upon it. In fact, we as a country have been waiting for the Iranian situation to solve itself in this way since the Clinton administration. Well, it is now more apparent then ever that the time for a social uprising and potential coup is now. With the inspiration from a few special forces units and CIA agents, the right people in Iran can be convinced that it’s time to act. The way to a safer Iran is through it’s own people. We learned this with the fall of Communism and frankly we are relearning it in Iraq. We just need to light a fire under the Iranian people and get them started.

While the histories books have yet to be written, no one is going to be able to think of 2005 without thinking of Hurricane Katrina. In terms of shear devastation, there hasn’t been a storm to hit America that is quite like Katrina. One of the fiercest storms in recorded history, Katrina killed thousands of people and left New Orleans under water for over a month. Rebuilding is going to take years and the population of the region will never be the same. Katrina also brought racial and economical issues back into the forefront of American politics and because of this the total effect of Hurricane Katrina will not be felt for years to come.

Terrorism was in the news again this year with the horrific train bombings in London. Coordinated attacks went off on three London subway trains and a bus within thirty minutes of each other. London, however, turned the tide and released video footage of the bombers which lead on a swift investigation leading with arrests of other terrorists living and potentially operating in London.

The Supreme Court saw huge changes this year with the resignation of Sandra Day O’Connor and the death of William Rehnquist. John Roberts, first named to replace O’Connor, was then nominated, confirmed, and sworn in as the 17th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Alito has been nominated for O’Connor’s seat and confirmation hears have been set for early 2006.

Perhaps the biggest story of the last thirty years or so from a religious standpoint was the passing of Pope John Paul II and the Conclave that followed. After four elections, Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected the new Pope of the Catholic Church.

For a good portion of the year Nattalee Holloway dominated the news. First it was the story of her disappearance, then of the suspects, and eventually the ineptitude of the Aruban government. While all this coverage is just a little ridiculous, the tragedy of it all is that this girl was probably raped, killed, and dumped in the ocean and a few teenagers are going to essentially get away with the perfect crime.

In the legal world there was the Scott Peterson trial, the crazy ass “Runaway Bride” and of course, the lovable petifile Michael Jackson. Thats right folks, Jacko was acquitted of molesting that boy. There isn’t really much more to say about that case.

While I’m pretty much over writing this article as it became quite boring and I’m sure it’s quite boring to read, I’m going to wrap it up by saying that Iraq held three elections this year. Three. Incredible. Here is to 2006 and what the news will bring us in the coming 365 days. Perhaps I should start campaigning for next years Sexiest Geeks list.

Done.

For a while now both sides of the political isle have been preparing and making threats about what will happen once a vacancy was made in the high court. Now that the time has come, the rhetoric has gotten worse. Seemingly minutes after Justice O’Connor announced her retirement Senate Democrats, led by Ted Kennedy, came out with a statement demanding a moderate nominee. The White House announced no name would be released for at least a week though, a short list is no doubt already in place.

Whoever receives the nomination, however, is no doubt about to face the fight of their lives. Senate approval is required and if you thought the filibuster and so called ‘nuclear option’ talk of a few months ago was bad, just wait–it’s all about to come back. Dems will threaten to filibuster to hold the vote, Republicans will threaten the nuclear option to push the vote. Hopefully this will all be settled before the court begins its next session in October–though it probably won’t.

Whoever comes to replace O’Connor will hopefully bring some common sense back to the court. Lately the rulings handed down from the Supreme Court have been questionable at best. Two opinions referring to displaying the Ten Commandments were rendering practically contradicting each other. In one opinion the Commandments were allowed to be shown in front of a Texas statehouse, in the other it was not allowed to be shown in a Kansas courtroom. Another opinion, which is perhaps the most ludicrous in the past few years, sates that local governments can take private property and give it to another private owner so long as the new owner can build something on the property that generates more tax revenue–i.e. take your house and build a strip mall. Is this fair? No. Does it make sense? No. Has the court lost its mind? It is highly likely.

Part of this has to do with the fact that Supreme Court Justices serve for life. Perhaps term limits are a good idea to bring new blood and fresh ideas to the court. But that will be a debate for another day. For now, Sandra Day O’Connor’s seat is on the table and that is really all that matters.

Disclaimer: I did not write or compile this information. I merely received it in an email and therefore, I cannot vouch for its accuracy. However, from what I can tell, it seems to be a very unbiased compilation of information regarding Florida’s proposed amendments.

AMENDMENT 1

Official Title: Parental Notification of a Minor’s Termination of Pregnancy

Official Ballot Language: Proposing an amendment to the State Constitution to authorize the Legislature to require by general law for notification to a parent or guardian of a minor before the termination of the minor’s pregnancy. The amendment provides that the Legislature shall not limit or deny the privacy rights guaranteed to minors under the United States Supreme Court. The Legislature shall provide exceptions to such requirement for notification and shall create a process for judicial waiver of the requirement for notification.

Amendment Type: Legislative

Sponsor: Florida Legislature

Proponents: Florida Right to Life Committee

Proponents’ point of view: Proponents argue that it is critical for parents to be involved in helping their daughters make important decisions when pregnant and that parents should know when their daughters undergo surgery. Based on evidence from other states, proponents believe teenage abortion rates will go down if this is passed.

Opponents: Planned Parenthood and ACLU

Opponents’ point of view: The proposed amendment will limit the fundamental right to privacy. They believe notification laws postpone medical care and increase risk to patients. In addition, the opponents believe the ballot language is misleading to voters.

Your Vote: If you support this issue being added to the Florida Constitution as an amendment, vote yes. If you would like to keep this out of Florida’s Constitution, vote no.

I admit that the intro to my article made fun of Bush’s inarticulation, but my article focused on his policies. But you gotta admit, its pretty embarrasing having a president who builds up our nuclear program, but can’t pronounce “nuclear.”

To begin with, all that crap on the Bush website about saving the environment is just talk, sure he “supports those proposals,” that doesn’t mean he’s gonna make it happen. That’s a token gesture if there ever was one, and only lip service to placate the environmentalists, most of which see right through it. Why is Bush drilling all over the god damn place if he’s such a fan of renewable energy and conservation? He talks a lot of game, but his actions reveal his real allegiances — to the companies that financed his campaign: big oil and multinational corporations.

Your response to my referring to the average American as politically stupid and easily misled completely missed the point. Clearly, Americans have proven that they can be manipulated by their leaders since the public has just backed a completely unjustified war. How can you in good conscience vote to send more people our age to die in a country that (a) has never attacked us, (b) has never threatened to attack us, (c) is one of at least a half dozen hot spots around the world in which there are human rights abuses, and yet we are ignoring those because they are of no strategic interest, and (d) had no physical evidence of WMD’s, before OR after our invasion. The whole pre-emptive strike is the most ludicrous concept ever. If our inspectors had found evidence of nuclear weapons, MAYBE we could then send in troops, but when they didn’t find shit, we’re like “Too bad, we’re still gonna come kick your ass. Fuck the rest of the world’s protests.” That’s the basic message we sent — if you disagree with us, tough shit, cause we can bomb whoever we want, with our without global consensus. The president even sabotaged the whole inspection thing — he sent in a few CIA agents DISGUISED as weapons inspectors to spy on the Iraqis. Way to make a sham of the whole peace process, chief.

The old line about how Saddam is evil and had to removed is a bullshit argument. Of course Saddam’s evil, but it is documented and commonly known that we tolerated his massacres of the Kurds as long as he continued to facilitate our access to oil in the region. It was ONLY once he decided to invade Kuwait that we said “enough already.” But it wasn’t to protect the Kuwaiti people, oh no, we just used that as the perfect excuse to get into Kuwait and set up air bases there to further extend our imperial stretch into the Middle East and our leverage over oil prices. Bush senior clearly didn’t give a shit about the people there, because he promised the Iraqi people military support if they rose up and fought Saddam, then once Saddam retreated out of Kuwait, he REFUSED to go after him and left Saddam to murder all the Iraqi people we encouraged to resist. That’s the kind of people we’ve got leading us. Liars who seize any opportunity to further ensure “American” interests.

Here’s another fun fact. Did you know that immediately after Saddam heard that the US was pissed off about his invading Kuwait, he offered to settle the dispute with the US through peaceful negotiations, and made MULTIPLE peace offerings, even offering to retreat back into Iraq? And what did Bush Sr. do? He rejected them all flat out, saying “we won’t negotiate.” Why would he do this? Because he used the invasion, like I said, as an excuse to get his greedy little hands further into the Middle East. Then, to top it off he lied to the American people and said “I went to war as a last resort, only after all chances at diplomatic resolution repeatedly failed.” Sounds familiar. What a fucking liar. And the average American bought it completely, despite the fact that, if they bother to get their info from something other than the Bush-worshipping Fox network, they could learn the truth for themselves, from plenty of published sources. Hence, THE AVERAGE AMERICAN IS STUPID. Or, they just don’t care unless it directly affects them. Probably a combination.

9/11 was Bush Jr’s excuse to go back to the Middle East under the bullshit allegations that Saddam was somehow connected to Bin Laden. Are you beginning to see a family pattern here? This intelligence claim came from ONE IRAQI INFORMANT, as the 9/11 commission discovered. That is clearly not enough evidence to send a country to war. And yet we did. And I cannot understand how you think it was a good idea for Bush to ignore the U.N.’s protests. What the fuck good is a global peace organization when we can just circumvent it anytime we damn well please? Explain that to me, please. We act like we’re the God of this planet.

Here’s another idea — hypothetically, even if Iraq did have nukes, who the fuck are we to say they can’t? They didn’t threaten us, we shouldn’t get in their affairs. What, we can have nukes but no one else can? Why? And if we are deciding to play global police, then we should LISTEN TO THE REST OF THE WORLD when they disagree. But our administration is too self-righteous to back down or admit they’re wrong. I’m not saying previous presidents were much better, I’m saying the whole system is corrupt. Consider that India and Pakistan have nukes, and we’re not trying to take those away. They’re unstable too. Why all the double-standards? If you can offer some insight, Shannon, by all means, enlighten me.

You ended stating “And finally, you said that ‘there are intelligent responses to provocative material, and then there is Shannon’s response.’ If you are going to say that, at least get it right. There was only one response besides mine, so there was ‘an intelligent response’ not ‘responses.’ ”

Wow. I didn’t say there are intelligent responses to “my article,” I said “there are intelligent response to provocative material,” meaning not just mine, ALL material out there. I would think that was obvious. Read carefully first so your quips at least make sense.