Once in office, the president becomes acutely aware he is temporary stew ard of a permanent position. … Every day brings the president that much closer to the time he will turn on the TV to see someone else’s face burned in effigy outside a foreign embassy.

The moment, as you can imagine, is bittersweet.

A burning a photo of Obama at an Iranian protest.

Well said.

A guy is passed out on the stairs and someone’s drawn on his face with permanent marker. There’s a handful of sloppy drunk people on some beer-stained couches unwilling to call it a night. One of the bathrooms is filled with vomit and there’s trash everywhere. Suddenly a bunch of guys nobody knows shows up because this is the only place where they can keep drinking, and they start harassing the girls that until then were having a great time and now will never come back. Everyone gets into a fight, someone calls the cops and the whole thing ends up being a nightmare.

When the Republicans talk about being the party of Lincoln, remember that party.

You’re probably not seeing this on The Daily Show. I walked over to the SONY studios a few blocks down from the office, and saw a pretty well-manned picket line. The writers want to ensure fair compensation for their creativity when it’s sold over the Internet.

Enjoy your re-runs.

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

The Gospel of Luke:

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also.

Toby Keith:

Justice will be served
And the battle will rage
This big dog will fight
When you rattle his cage
And you’ll be sorry that you messed with
The U.S. of A.
Cause well put a boot in your ass
It`s the American way

Livonians—and apparently Michiganders in general—have no need for Affirmative Action. They are voting for their own detriment, watching their tax dollars funding Universities which they think penalize them for their race and culture.

UM President Mary Sue Coleman had strong words for these people:

I am deeply disappointed that the voters of our state have rejected affirmative action as a way to help build a community that is fair and equal for all.

and Olivia Frost, professor and interim dean of my school, assured us that, SI has strategies in place designed to increase diversity, and Proposal 2 has caused us at SI to reaffirm our commitment to diversity.

Brace yourself, this might be offensive

To the Livonians I mentioned before—and at times to myself—phrases like “commitment to diversity” connote the following:

We believe in getting as many dark-hued people as we can into our institution, no matter how much we have to lower our standards to do it, and no matter how many lightly-hued people we have to screw over to do it.

It doesn’t help that recent books have asserted that socioeconomic status—and not “race” (if such a thing exists)—dictates one’s potential for success, even if those two qualities are often highly correlated.

Mary Sue Coleman has declared war on the people that pay her salary—the voters of Michigan. Fighting their needs, aspirations and fears will not succeed. Instead of being combative, we need to change our language.

Ability, not hue

I agree with Drs. Coleman and Frost at heart: working with people from varied backgrounds and with different perspectives is more important than having those with the highest grades. I’ve been shocked by the perspectives of my friends from rural communities in Norther Michigan. Gay friends of mine have expressed frustration with facets of culture I thought completely innocuous, and for valid reasons. Diversity is key to a good education.

Artificial barriers keep minorities underrepresented in universities and professional settings. Underfunded schools keep urban children from succeeding. Women don’t get onto the golf course or invited into World of Warcraft. Racism, sexism, and socially-accepted bigotry discourage minorities.

But we don’t need Affirmative Action. We need new metrics that understand and control for these variables. We need to create heuristics that can normalize grades and test scores based on actual data and not make assumptions based on gender and hue. A friend reasoned, “Affirmitive Action is a broken system, but it’s better than no system.” Instead of being combative, let’s begin imagining what that system could be.

Today is my birthday. I don’t want any presents; all I ask is one thing: let’s stop whining and do something. Something good.

MoveOn.org is sponsoring a Call for Change program all this week. Members and volunteers call voters and encourage them to vote. The idea sounds simple, but it’s powerful: get people to the polls. Voter turnout will be key in this election in order to help restore sanity to Washington.

As for efficacy, MoveOn has proof. Numbers don’t lie:

And the best part is, this works. We tested this method in the April special election in California’s 50th district. The result: our calls had a greater impact, per voter, than any volunteer phonebank ever measured! And we’ll continue to use experimentation and technology to increase our effectiveness.

On Friday afternoon, I’ll be making calls for MoveOn. I’m hoping some similarly disgruntled patriots will join me as well. It will take only an hour, and even twenty minutes could make a difference. Contact me if you’re interested in joining in.

Consider it a birthday present.

Defined, the new album by the group is one of “those CDs” created with rootkit-planting, disingenuous software for which their label was caught and sued. I don’t want to buy the badware, but I love the music. What is a guy to do?

I shopped around for alternatives. Here’s what I found:

What’s the big deal?

Digital Restriction Mechanisms (DRM, and yes I know that’s not what Wikipedia calls it) are built-in encryption that prevents users from copying media distributed electronically. They’re usually owned by a single company and work only in a single context. A laissez-faire capitalist might think this well within the sellers’ rights, but it presents a number of problems most consumers don’t realize. Some of the bigger ones:

No secondary market

Realized the that Justin lied and Sexy never left? There’s no such thing as digital garage sales. DRM music cannot be transferred to another owner.

No fair use

Almost all of contemporary culture was built by derivative works. DRM music does not let you remix it, sample it, or use it in ways protected by fair use provisions of copyright law.

Product lock-in

Imagine having to re-buy your entire CD collection just because you upgraded your player. Or bought a new car. Microsoft’s new Zune does not even play their own DRM. iTunes music is trash if you switch away from an iPod, and Amazon, Napter, et al. won’t work if you use a Mac.

I chose to pay $21 more for my CD. DRM is a social evil, and the extra price is worth the message to Sony/BMG: I vote for freedom.

‘Net Neutrality

The whole idea of Net Neutrality seems like an issue for markets to work out. With phone, cable and soon power companies getting involved in Internet service, as well as the countless wireless companies slowly lowering data rates, connections to the Internet are going to face increasing competition for price, speed, and service. I cancelled my Comcast Cable Internet soon after I ordered it, as I was so unimpressed with their service and its exorbitant price.

Faced with poor service or a frustrating product, I hope that Americans have not become such sheep that they won’t switch providers over such a thing as poor service. I love the idea behind Goodsearch, but its search results were just so bad, combined its lack of Maps and local search forced be back to Google for all of my search needs. Allow Americans to make intelligent choices about their services, don’t legislate the markets.

The only time I could see legislating Net Neutrality as a smart move would be with municipal wireless connections. If the government is going to provide Internet access (which I have some hesitations about as well), let’s make sure they do so fairly. Let the suits make their deals’they’ll only annoy and alienate them. As long as consumers have choices, they will work the situation out.

Taxing Email

MoveOn’s campaign to Stop Stop AOL’s ‘Email Tax’ is ludicrous. AOL is not planning on taxing anyone. They just want to stop unsolicited and bulk email from getting to their subscribers, unless the sender either

• Is recognized by the receiver,or that failing,
• The sender coughs up some cash.

Nowhere has AOL ever mentioned taxing every single email, or even stopping solicited messages. Essentially they want to do the same thing for their users that SpamAssassin does for me.

If you own any CD on this list, have Sony replace it for free, and check your computer if you ever have put the CD into it.

In case you haven’t been following, here’s a rundown of what happened.

• Sony used a new type of DRM scheme that surreptitiously installs software onto your computer.
• Sony’s software installs without permission after inserting the music CD into your drive.
• The software worked so closely to your operating system that it opened up serious security holes and would ruin your drive if removed.
• The world found out.
• The EFF, and others, stood up for the consumers rights, suing Sony.
• The good guys one.

I, luckily, don’t have anything on the list, having bought only three CDs in the past 2 years. I was frightened to notice that some of the artists I own do have CDs on the list, just not mine: Amici Forever, Britney Spears (I know, I know—but I was sixteen and she was prettier before her “knee” surgery), Foo Fighters and Our Lady Peace.

Feeling kind of crazy, I recorded this post as a blogcast. Check it out if wish.

Our small crew were investigating rumors of marshmallow roasting, when we saw a series of four-foot high bonfires, enclosed by metal platforms to keep the kids safe. I asked a man where to find the mallow vendors, and he replied by giving me the balance of his bag and a roasting stick. My friends and I set up shop near one of the bonfires and began roasting, belatedly realizing we shared the fire with one of my classmates, who provided us with graham crackers and chocolate. Behind us, a nine-year-old white suburbanite kid was showing some black Detroiters his favorite way of roasting a marshmallow. For one night, Detroit was awash with community and serentity. Instead of the violent race tensions and depression that has wracked the city for years. The only hint negativism came from proselytising Christian hatemongers. And that’s to be expected in the midwest.

Of course this couldn’t last. Outside of the first bar we visited, at around 1:30 a.m., a “bumping” incident turned into a fatal shooting. Ah well, Detroit is still Detroit in some ways.

The SuperBowl (can I get a go Steelers?) gave Detroit a glimpse of what it could be like to be a real, grown-up city. My only hope is that the city finds a way to do the same thing without having to rely on Ford, Motorola et al from dumping so much cash into the festivities.

Oh—and hiding our homeless? That’s just shameful.