Write a letter for Peter

Write a letter for Peter McWilliams.

Last week, I posted the

Last week, I posted the Jeeves "Peek through the keyhole" link. The next day, Robot Wisdom linked to the same page, with a credit to "iforgetwhere".

Yesterday, I pointed to the Acme site for free graphics tools. Today, Scripting News has a link to the Acme License Plate Maker, with no credit about where he got the link.

Yeah, I think they should have linked to where ever they found those references--not necessarily to me, but to anyone. Hey, maybe they got them from some other site entirely, who has really interesting links that I'd also like to see. Or maybe they're just not giving us credit.

So here's a test, with one of my favorite links: Ask Jeeves "What's the meaning of life?" Who's going to pick up on this one? (And when you get there, click on "Complete FAQ in one page." for the best results.)

Sigh... now I feel like

Sigh... now I feel like I have to explain myself (see Tom's post below).

I registered to vote when I turned 18 as a Democrat, because, well, everyone in my family was a Democrat.

In 1980 I re-registered as a Republican so that I could vote for John Anderson in the CA primary, because I just knew that if Reagan was elected we'd end up dropping the bomb on someone. When I moved (between the primary and general election) I was so disgusted with the two major party candidates that I re-registered Libertarian.

I've been Libertarian (small and big l) now for 20 years, and I'm still as disgusted with the choices presented by the Republicrats.

I think that the only hope for the two party system in this country is for the Republican party to break in two: both fiscally conservative, but one that's socially liberal and the other socially conservative. Personally, I'm a social liberal and a fiscal conservative, and there are no candidates out there that support my views.

The only thing that I can do is work to break up the Republican party. I think that the best bet for that is for me to vote for John McCain in the primary. The Republican leadership hates McCain so much that if he could actually win the nomination, the party might just do itself in.

This is one of the ways in which I think that the McCain backers are deluding themselves, however. There's not a chance in hell I'll actually vote for the guy come November; I'm just voting for him next month to drive a stake into the heart of the Republicans. Come November I'll probably once again hold my nose and vote for Harry Browne (Government doesn't work; vote for me so I can prove it!) (my low opinion of big-L Libertarians is another rant entirely).

Is there a single electable candidate that's in favor of paying down the debt and against the CDA?

I could handle living with

I could handle living with a registered Libertarian; it was like having that weird aunt who lives in the basement. Strange, but harmless. But now I'm living with a registered Republican! Stop the madness!

Another good quote in Slate's

Another good quote in Slate's Today's Papers:

The NYT quotes a Treasury Department finding lending much perspective to the marriage penalty discussion: According to the latest available figures, nearly the same number of people receive a marriage bonus (21 million joint returns) as pay a marriage penalty (24.8 million). And the amount of money at stake is about the same too.

At one point, the Times quotes a Republican House member's question, "What is more immoral than taxing people just because they fall in love?" Oh, that's easy ... not letting them get married.

As far as the financial part of this is concerned, it shows that this whole "marriage penalty" thing is another GOP election-year scam. After losing election after election by clinging to the idea that tax cuts are always political winners, you would think that they would learn.

Some of this is via

Some of this is via Array, some isn't, but it's all a followup to the free graphics creation links below.

• Adobe's Create a Graphic looks like it would be very cool, if you were using a browser they're targeting (I'm not).
  
• Adobe's Optimize an Image. "Slim down your graphics for faster download -- one click and you're thin."
  
• Adobe's Save for Web. "Get precise control over your web graphics. Adjust color, size, and more with this advanced image-processing tool."
  
• CoolText.com's Online Graphics Generator. Logos, buttons, and bullets, oh my! Fonts: Agate, Alfred Drake, Apollo, Arnold Boecklin, Baskerville, Becker, Black Forest, Blippo, Bodidly, Bodoni, Brush Stroke, Caligula, Capri, Cartwright, Charter, Classic Heavy Light, Comics Cartoon, Cooper, Coronet Script, Courier, Crackling Fire, Crillee, Cunei Font Light, Dobkin Script, Dragonwick, Duncan, Engraver, Eras, Florence Light, Friz Quadrata, Futura Poster, Garamond, Genoa, Good City Modern, Goudy Old Style, Old Town, Park Avenue, Rechtman Script, Romeo, Roost Heavy, Rudelsberg, Shark Tooth, Slogan, Sumdumgoi, Tekton, Tempo Font, Tribeca, Upper West Side, Utopia, Victoria's Secret, Western Slant, Windsordemi

OK, I know it's mean-spirited

OK, I know it's mean-spirited of me. But I just can't see this as a tragedy.'Ernest' comic Jim Varney dead.

Another one bites the dust.

Another one bites the dust. Forbes says about Delaware: "We were nosed out by a landslide." Now he can stop saying "I want to be your leader" and go back to saying "Take me to your leader."

Forget the quote of the

Forget the quote of the day, here's the quotes for the rest of the year: The Obligatory Quotes Page. (Via Flutterby)

Why buy graphics software just

Why buy graphics software just to make text gifs? Here's a couple of free sites that will accept your preferences and create the gif for you, online, while you wait:

• Acme's LabelMaker. Fonts: Alien, BabyBlock, Bamboo, Bertinelli, Betsy, Bones, CandyBits, Crackman, Currency, Cyberia, DanceStep, Diablo, DirtyDozen, DotMatrix, Dyno, Fillmore, Future, Gawain, Godzilla, GothamNights, Graffiti, HenryIII, HotDog, LokiCola, Manuscript, Nihon, Raceway, RansomNote, RenStimpy, Romaneste, Samarkan, Signature, Tolkien, Transistor, TrekClassic, Typewriter, YellowSub, Zeppelin
  
• Adobe's Create a Banner. Fonts: Adobe Caslon Semibold, Andreas Regular, Bauer Bodoni Bold, Bell Gothic Bold, Bembo Bold, Bernhard Modern Bold, Blackoak Regular, Brush Script, Caflisch Script Bold, Caxton Bold, Conga Brava MM Reg., Eccentric Regular, Folio Bold, Fusaka Regular, Futura Medium, Giddyup Regular, Isabella Regular, ITC Bookman Demi, ITC Kabel Medium, ITC Novarese Bold, Kigali Block, Lucida Sans Roman, Mojo Regular, Nueva Bold Extended, Postino Italic, Reliq MM Regular, Revue Regular, RotisSemiSerif 55, Studz Regular, Trajan Bold, Viva Regular, Willow Regular

From the Bad Air and

From the Bad Air and Space Museum, it's Space Station Homeless. Funny stuff.

Thanks to the Net, this

Thanks to the Net, this week I've gotten back in touch with two friends from high school; I hadn't heard from them in 25 years. I love it when this happens. Welcome back, Donna and Jeff.

From Today's Papers, in Slate:

From Today's Papers, in Slate:

The WP says inside that Defense Secretary William Cohen is saying quite explicitly that in the new budget his department is procuring some weapons, not because of service need, but simply to help keep various defense contractors' production lines open. The paper quotes a Lockheed spokesman expressing the hope that these new stopgap orders will spur international sales. The Post doesn't connect the dots on this, so here goes: Your tax dollars are being spent to make the defense contractors more comfortable by making U.S. service members more vulnerable.

Quote of the day: 'German

Quote of the day: 'German is a wonderfully precise and expressive language. "Peace talks" is Feuereinstellungsverhandlungen, and "Hans, what do you say tomorrow morning we climb into our tanks and roll over Poland?" is "Hans, Poland, ja?"' (Via ST)

Could Mulder be wrong? This

Could Mulder be wrong? This NYT article, Maybe We Are Alone in the Universe, After All reports on a new book that lays out the case that intelligent life in the Universe is much less likely than previously thought.

This article has a bad

This article has a bad few lead paragraphs, but gets to an interesting discussion of a set of techniques for building lunar housing, using lunar materials, sunlight, and mirrors.

Dan Sanderson has created a

Dan Sanderson has created a Weblog Filter that looks like it could be very useful if he can get the kinks worked out of it.

Tom was trying to figure

Tom was trying to figure this out just recently: How they digitally put the yellow ten-yard marker lines on the football field.

Quote of the day: "They

Quote of the day: "They say the grass is greener on the other side, but have you ever flipped it over?"