Website of the week

With spyware being a big deal nowadays, here is a good site to check out for more good tools to fight spyware. They have articles, downloads, etc.

Check it out here:
http://www.spychecker.com/

Bush finally agrees with McCain on torture ban

In a move that is somewhat surprising, President Bush has decided to get on board with Sen. John McCain's proposed torture ban that he and his administration had threatened to veto. I think the President made a good move here, I really was puzzled over why the administration would publicly be against a proposal to prohibit torture when we already supposedly adhere to the Geneva Convention that prohibits it. Also, when our own government says that torture is okay when it decideds it is so, doesn't that make our own troops more likely to be tortured if they are captured. I realize many of those countries or groups that we have gone to war against already do torture our troops when they are captured, I think allowing our own government to use it AND publicly support it is a terrible idea.

I would think it would be smarter to publicly renounce torture and if you had to use it on an isolated basis it could probably be done so without telling the world. Don't get me wrong, not necessarily saying that we should do that, but you can always pass off one instance of torture as someone going too far, but when its your govt's policy, that is hard to dispute.

Furthermore, it has pretty much been proven that torture is often not the best way to extract accurate and useful information, especially physical torture like beating or shocking someone.

Another puzzling part of this story is how the administration seems to be on about 10 different pages on the issue, saying on one hand that we don't do it, but then another person says we should not have a ban on torture. Two weeks from Dick Cheney will probably go off in public about how we should use torture when necessary.

Here is the story on yahoo if you want to read it:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051216/ap_on_go_pr_wh/congress_detainees;_ylt=AquXy_dSoEiBj9WuP62oGF.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-

More good news for traffic safety

Great news, apparently Americans are talking on their cell phones even more while driving! Yes! That is awesome news. Yeah, I talk on mine occasionally while I am driving, but generally only when I am driving in areas where I stay at a pretty constant speed, like on the interstate, but never when merging on or off on in an area with tons of stop and go traffic. I also will put the phone down for a second if I do need to merge on or off the interstate or do some tricky passing or changing lanes. Probably half the time that I get stuck behind some dumb ass in the fast lane only doing 70 in a 65 (just a reminder that the left most lane is for passing, its generally not for thru traffic), he or she is talking on their cell phone oblivious to the rest of the world.

A study conducted by the NHTSA showed that about 10% of the people on the road were using their cell phones, up from 8% a year ago.

Not saying you can't use it while driving, but only if you are a good enough driver and can do so without putting yourself, your passengers or other drivers in danger. Most people I see on the road have a hard enough time driving without any added distractions.

Clink the link below to read about the story on yahoo:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051216/ap_on_go_ot/cell_phone_drivers;_ylt=Ag6_RXEdnqBNDhY7_t_z90NvzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

or here to read the actual report from the National Highway Traffic Safetly Administration (NHTSA):
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/RNotes/2005/809967.pdf

Puritans on the loose again

I guess if someone would be indicted anywhere in the US for running an adult video and bookstore, you could reasonably expect it would be in the middle of the bible thumping capital of the world, good ol' Kansas! And if you did expect that you would be right. You can check out the article at the link below from the Wichita Eagle if you want to know more about it. One interesting thing about the article is that it lists what is considered obscene under Kansas law, part of which states that it could be considered obscene if the average person is offended by it (that is a very condensed version of what is says). Of course in Kansas, just enjoying sex could probably be considered offensive to some of the bible beaters.

Here is the link:
http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/news/13289426.htm