Have you seen what they have done? There’s a presidential directive authorizing the trial of terrorist suspects by secret military tribunals, with no accountability and no review. Continue reading Erosion of Civil Liberties
Author: dd-b
The Matrix
The Matrix is, I’m given to understand, one of the best SF films that Hollywood has produced. Many of my film-going friends tell me this. It was up for the Hugo award for best science fiction dramatic presentation in 2000 (it was beaten by Galaxy Quest, in what is said to be a rather strong field). It’s currently (19-Aug-2001) #31 in the IMDB Top 250, with a rating of 8.5 out of 10.
Dull States
States have personalities. My perceptions of those personalities are probably as accurate as most people’s perceptions of the personalities of politicians and celebrities, i.e. pretty distantly related to reality. But it’s fun to play with.
The War On Some Drugs
“The war on some drugs” is one of the common names for the phenomenon. “Some drugs” refers to the fact that alcohol and caffeine are untouchable. Nicotine seems to be falling, but even it isn’t getting hit by the drug warriors, it’s dying a different death. Politicians tend to call it just “the war on drugs”. I’ve also heard it called “the war on civil rights”, for reasons which should be pretty obvious.
Idling Your Engine
I’d never seen one in the summer before. Just the other day, I was walking through the Target parking lot down by Southtown, and there it was. A car. Sitting there, empty. With the engine running.
In the winter, it’s a fairly common piece of idiocy. I see several a week. I’ve almost gotten inured to it. But I hadn’t seen it in the summer before.
What’s wrong with it, you ask? Just the usual. Polluting the air we all breath, adding to the heat load in the city we all live in, consuming irreplaceable fossil hydrocarbons, adding green-house gases to the atmosphere that’s going to cook us all one of these days. Also probably contributing to car thefts, and leaving open some possibility of nasty accidents (cars have dropped themselves into gear before this).
(Yes, I know we don’t every single one of us live in a city. I and the people who have been leaving their cars running in parking lots where I see them all do. And we share the same atmosphere even with those who don’t.)
Are those costs bad enough to justify saying it’s wrong to keep your car warm, or cool, while you’re shopping, so you don’t freeze, or fry, when you come out and get back in? Seems like it to me; and that’s why these are rants, I get to let fly based on just my opinion. I hate heat as much as anybody, more than most (it’s hot if it’s over 70). But I don’t think my comfort is so vitally important that I should run a car engine just to provide a little heat or cooling, so I don’t have to wait as long to be comfortable again.