According to an article on Wired, the Chinese have been spying on various and sundry assorted people and groups by sneaking through (yet another) Microsoft Word flaw.
This is just another reason that I use Open Office for my word processing needs. Yes, there are versions for just about any operating system, and they all talk to each other very nicely.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Poly Ticks
Even though many (if not most) of our national-level elected officials are tolerably decent peeps individually, I think I've noticed a change in the political parties as a whole.
Seems to me that in my Early Years, the two main political parties were each barely on opposite sides of a line that represented the middle ground: when something came up, each side pointed toward a solution that was only slightly to the left or right.
More and more, however, the Republicans and Democrats seem to be moving farther and farther apart -- one side or the other will produce a 'personality' that draws public attention, and their counterparts will cast around for someone to counteract the other side. This (of course) only results in the first side coming up with a counter-counter-personality, who must be topped. Back and forth they go, each sides Loud Voice moving the group a miniscule bit farther away from the other -- until, finally, we reach the point where any proposal by either side is immediately perceived as unacceptable for the simple reason that it came from the 'opposition'.
I know I'm not the first person to think of this -- the simple fact that there have been repeated attempts to establish and grow a third, fourth, or other 'alternative' party suggests that there are a lot of people out there that agree: neither the Democrats NOR Republicans have a hammerlock on Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
Personally, I think (and hope) that it isn't going to be too much longer before the separation between the two parties is great enough that there will be room for a third -- and further, that once that 3rd party survives an election year, it will quickly grow to overwhelm either of the other two. I think this will happen for a very few simple, basic reasons:
Seems to me that in my Early Years, the two main political parties were each barely on opposite sides of a line that represented the middle ground: when something came up, each side pointed toward a solution that was only slightly to the left or right.
More and more, however, the Republicans and Democrats seem to be moving farther and farther apart -- one side or the other will produce a 'personality' that draws public attention, and their counterparts will cast around for someone to counteract the other side. This (of course) only results in the first side coming up with a counter-counter-personality, who must be topped. Back and forth they go, each sides Loud Voice moving the group a miniscule bit farther away from the other -- until, finally, we reach the point where any proposal by either side is immediately perceived as unacceptable for the simple reason that it came from the 'opposition'.
I know I'm not the first person to think of this -- the simple fact that there have been repeated attempts to establish and grow a third, fourth, or other 'alternative' party suggests that there are a lot of people out there that agree: neither the Democrats NOR Republicans have a hammerlock on Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
Personally, I think (and hope) that it isn't going to be too much longer before the separation between the two parties is great enough that there will be room for a third -- and further, that once that 3rd party survives an election year, it will quickly grow to overwhelm either of the other two. I think this will happen for a very few simple, basic reasons:
- Our government has simply become too big, bloated, and inefficient.
- Our government is nowhere NEAR responsive to the wishes of the American people as a whole.
- Our government has become too intrusive and demanding on the very people it is supposed to be serving.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Equal Time (sort of)
I know I've mentioned my owner "Elf" here several times; just to show that I'm not anti-dog (I'd have one if I didn't live in an apartment), here are a couple somethings from I Has A Hotdog:
Monday, April 7, 2008
Bits o' Fluff
I mentioned in my previous post that I'm anti-China, and why. As part of that don't-support-the-shitbirds policy, I do a fair amount of my non-food shopping at Target versus Wal*Mart: my experience thus far has been that Target offers more not-Made-in-China items that Wally World. For example, today I purchased a couple of items for home - a bookshelf kit and a set of cookware to replace the worn out mishmash of things I've been pretending to cook with until now.
The shelves were Target-branded, and identified on the box as being made in Malaysia. The cookware was a little tougher: even the Wearever brand had a tiny little "Made in China" tucked away on the box; there was, however, a Bialetti set (mine is black, not red) that was made (you guessed it) in Italy. The quality of the Bialetti set more than made up for the marginally higher price compared to the Chinese-made stuff.
On a totally unrelated note, I know that posting has been a bit on the 'thin' side here of late; all I can say is that I've been having Adventures in Real Life. Things have settled down, however, and I fully expect to being more involved here and on other blogs more Real Soon Now(tm). Also, I'm considering re-activating my previous blog, A Different Lemming. If anyone reading this has any opinion on the matter, don't be shy about expressing it - I'm certainly open to feedback, and can understand that updating blog linkage could be considered an annoyance to one degree or another.
In the mean time, have an ordinary day :-|
The shelves were Target-branded, and identified on the box as being made in Malaysia. The cookware was a little tougher: even the Wearever brand had a tiny little "Made in China" tucked away on the box; there was, however, a Bialetti set (mine is black, not red) that was made (you guessed it) in Italy. The quality of the Bialetti set more than made up for the marginally higher price compared to the Chinese-made stuff.
On a totally unrelated note, I know that posting has been a bit on the 'thin' side here of late; all I can say is that I've been having Adventures in Real Life. Things have settled down, however, and I fully expect to being more involved here and on other blogs more Real Soon Now(tm). Also, I'm considering re-activating my previous blog, A Different Lemming. If anyone reading this has any opinion on the matter, don't be shy about expressing it - I'm certainly open to feedback, and can understand that updating blog linkage could be considered an annoyance to one degree or another.
In the mean time, have an ordinary day :-|
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