blueZhift Blog

Even after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in cases of child rape, it appears that some politicians intend to keep writing unconstitutional laws invoking it in rape cases. This ultimately underscores the hypocrisy of all too many of our elected officials. They say that the death penalty is a deterrent and that we need it to protect the children. These are just fallacies, our laws rarely deter anything, people inclined to murder or rape are not going to sit down and reason that they shouldn’t do it because of the death penalty. We only catch up with them, if we do, after the fact. At that point, life imprisonment is sufficient to ensure that they are no longer a threat to society.

But I guess that wouldn’t satisfy the desire for delicious vengeance. Vengeance is not justice, and in a country where so many profess to be Christians, they should know that vengeance and justice belong to the Lord. Vengeance is mine saith the Lord, I will repay! (Romans 12:19-21) I guess God’s justice just isn’t good enough for blood thirsty people. Maybe we should do what it says on the money and trust God, instead of trying to sit on His throne all the time.

Now that it has gotten more expensive to drive to work than take the bus, I’m on the bus! I’ve been taking the bus 2 days out of the week at least for the last few weeks, but it’s not really all about the fuel cost. I’ve found that it can be a lot of fun and a lot less stressful. I like driving, but it’s fun to take a break from time to time. And of course it doesn’t hurt that there are a lot of wonderful sights to see, human and natural!XD

Yahoo! has been in the news a lot lately. The most recent news is of a possible alliance with rival Google in part to avoid a buyout by the likes of Microsoft. So billionaire investor Carl Icahn has been throwing a hissy fit because he was unable to make more money selling Yahoo to Microsoft, and the press says shareholders are confused. Well, what’s to be confused about? Are we so greedy now that it is impossible to understand that maybe not everyone wants to sell to the highest bidder? Is it hard to believe that maybe Yahoo! wanted to remain independent? And, gasp, that maybe a free and independent Yahoo! is a better deal for consumers overall. Yahoo! has also been a strong supporter of open source technologies and open standards, anathema to Microsoft for the most part. As a developer, my world is better with Yahoo! than without it. So go Yahoo!

RRRRRRrrrrrrrr! My Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 keyboard is back from the dead, for now at least. After reading on the net numerous reports of key issues, and hating hating hating the replacement spare I was using, I figured I had nothing to lose by trying to fix my malfunctioning keyboard. So I opened it up with relative ease to see what I could do.

The internal circuits are essentially painted conductor on thin plastic film. I noticed a number of dark areas probably due to oxidation. So I cleaned these areas with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol, drying the swabbed areas with the dry end of the swab. I paid special attention to the area of the bad R key. I then reassembled the keyboard and am happily typing this post with it, R’s and all!^___^

Arrrrrrgh! The R key has died on my keyboard (Microsoft Comfort Curve)! *expletive deleted* Now I must make do with the uber crappy spare… Not a happy camper!>_>

Just something I ran across on Amazon.com. There’s no picture yet, but it looks like Yubisaki Milk Tea Volume 8 is scheduled for a release in October 2008. I’ve been following this series for a while now, and was wondering if it would continue past volume 7 or had been canceled. TokyoPop has a volume 8 listed, but no other information. I read somewhere that the series was on hiatus in Japan, but likely to continue. The story seems to be coming to a climax, so it would be a shame if it were canceled now. This is one of my guilty pleasures because it mixes so many taboo subjects into one delicious package with a somewhat less than always sympathetic main character.^_^