Some extraordinary wanker hacked my site last night, placing malicious javascript in many of my PHP and HTML files. Only thanks to Steve was I able to really discern what it was that had happened, and he spent an hour or so going through my directory and deleting the offending code.
I discovered the problem, coincidentally, while talking to Steve on the phone. I had gone to log-in to my site to write a new post, when I saw some gibberish in the place of the normal log-in screen. I tried another browser and it was the same. Then I tried Internet Explorer, and my anti-virus program pops up, saying a virus was detected.
So, my apologies to anyone who attempted to read my posts and had trouble. Endless thanks again to Steve for resolving what could have been an enormous headache. Furthermore, instant Axis of Evil status for the loathsome computer vandal.
Filed under: Axis of Evil, Website on August 17th, 2007 | No Comments »
In today’s Washington Post is an article detailing President Bush’s opposition to expanding a health care program for children designed to aid those who are too poor to afford insurance, but do not qualify for MedicAid:
“The president said he objects on philosophical grounds to a bipartisan Senate proposal to boost the State Children’s Health Insurance Program by $35 billion over five years….
“‘I support the initial intent of the program,’ Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post after a factory tour and a discussion on health care with small-business owners in Landover. ‘My concern is that when you expand eligibility . . . you’re really beginning to open up an avenue for people to switch from private insurance to the government.’”
Stunning.
George W. Bush is more concerned about the profits of insurance companies than he is about poor, sick children. He said it in plain English. Think for a minute about what this means: the president of the United States–a man who claimed to be a “uniter”, a man who professes to support a “culture of life”–is putting the financial interest of corporations ahead of the welfare of innocent children. Lest anyone think this is loaded language I am using, read the president’s words again.
Whether or not you support national, single-payer healthcare–and, obviously, I do–to deny the most basic need to the most helpless among us is truly sinful, and I mean that in the most damning, Biblical way. To those who support(ed) President Bush I’d like to ask, is this what you voted for? Do those words represent your values? Would Jesus Christ–whom Bush named as his favorite philosopher–speak those words?
I’ll write more soon about my position on universal healthcare, but, for now, I’d like to let the president’s words sink in a little longer.
Filed under: Axis of Evil, Current Events, Health, Politics on July 19th, 2007 | No Comments »
I get so angry when I see members of the mainstream media repeat as Gospel what amounts to Republican talking points. In today’s Washington Post, Ruth Marcus, in a column otherwise devoted to laughing off Vice President Cheney’s criminal behavior, writes the following:
“This is Cheney’s version of the $400 haircut/I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it/I invented the Internet — a moment whose importance is magnified because it fits with jigsaw precision into an existing template.”
This type of writing follows a pattern common in American journalism today – a pattern in which, for a variety of reasons (none of them legitimate), every criticism of a conservative figure is “balanced” with a criticism of a progressive figure. Ergo, the reference to John Edwards’ expensive hair-do and John Kerry’s unfortunately worded explanation of an otherwise reasonable Senate vote. During the 2004 election cycle another media critic pointed out that George W. Bush could say the sun rises in the west, and John Kerry could say the sun rises in the east, but the newspaper headlines would read “Opinions Differ On Sunrise”.
This brings me to the the real irritating part of Marcus’ column: the Al Gore stab. Al Gore never claimed he “invented the internet”. That simply never happened. You can read all about it here, but the gist is that for years, conservative politicians, pundits and publications have misquoted and outright misled the public to try and make Al Gore seem like a liar.
This all amounts to lazy writing, and a cowardly fear of being accused of “liberal bias”. Republicans know that, in fact, it’s the truth that’s biased against them. They also know that conjuring up the specter of an elite “liberal media”, and repeating the accusation often enough, cements it in the minds of those who are no longer paying attention – no longer paying attention to avoid the regular parade of incompetence, corruption and carnage wrought by people like Vice President Cheney.
Filed under: Axis of Evil, Current Events, Politics on June 27th, 2007 | No Comments »
I’m pleased to read that neither ABC nor NBC will be conducting a post-jail interview with professional trainwreck Paris Hilton. I had been dismayed initially upon hearing that NBC had supposedly offered a million damn dollars to talk to that wretched whore. Now I see in the New York Times that that is no longer the case:
After a flurry of accounts this week about financial offers to land the first postprison interview with Paris Hilton, both ABC and NBC said yesterday that they no longer had any interest in securing the interview.
NBC said that it had contacted representatives of the Hilton family yesterday afternoon and told them the network would no longer pursue the interview with Ms. Hilton, who has been in jail in Los Angeles since June 3 on charges related to traffic violations. She was sentenced to serve 45 days.
‘We have informed their representatives that we are not interested in this interview,’ said Allison Gollust, the spokeswoman for NBC News.
It’s clear that Barbara Walters had been approached to do the interview for ABC, but the network declined, to their credit. I am certain, however, that Walters would have done the interview had she been allowed. The only thing that could convince me that whatever journalistic integrity Walters ever had had not long since vanished would have been if the first question she asked Hilton was, “Why are you such a terrible human being?”
Filed under: Axis of Evil on June 23rd, 2007 | No Comments »