bamatone.net

Sadly, I won't be updating this blog anymore. My Opera doesn't have an automatic import feature like Facebook does, and I no longer feel like copying and pasting each and every entry from my LiveJournal over here.

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Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/294130.html

Some talk about taxing coke: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113634715.

Surprisingly, I'm actually ok with this. As much as I love my coke, I know it's bad for me. And if I had to pay out the rear end for it (like smokers do with cigarettes), I would probably have to cut back, at least. I'm also pretty anti-tax for everything, but I can think of worse ideas than this. Curb a particularly unhealthy behavior and it could save millions of dollars in health care costs in the future.

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Some talk about Felony Franks: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125538779820481255.html.

James Andrews (not the famous surgeon in Birmingham) opened a hot dog stand in Chicago and hires only ex-felons in an effort to help rehabilitate them into society. He plays up the "felony" bit as part of his shtick. "Near the entrance hangs a mock list of Miranda rights: 'You have the right to remain hungry. Anything you order can and will be used to feed you here at Felony Franks.'" And so on.

Of course, there have been a lot of complaints, most prominently from a city alderman who seems to be engaged in a pissing match with Andrews over a proposed new sign that juts out into the road. A local pastor accuses Andrews of "pimping out" the community.

My take: While the name and marketing may be in extremely bad taste, Felony Franks does exactly what the pastor should be doing: helping to reintegrate ex-convicts into society in a lawful way. Andrews offers jobs, training, and stability to a class of citizens (felons are still citizens) who obviously have a difficult time finding these things after being released from prison.

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Some talk about Hispanic farmers and how they've been discriminated against by the Dept. of Agriculture (USDA): http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113730694.

This is a very well researched and thought out story from NPR about a lawsuit Hispanic farmers brought against the federal government for discriminatory lending practices. "The government settled a similar complaint brought by African-American farmers for $1 billion. And while the claims of discrimination and other factors are almost identical, the Hispanic farmers have gotten nothing."

During the 1970s, '80s and '90s, white farmers would apply for a loan and be approved quickly. Hispanic farmers either wouldn't be approved at all, or they would be approved too late in the growing season. Since they had to use that money to survive the winter, that meant the debt grew and grew. Farms were foreclosed upon.

The USDA has even admitted to all of this. But the result has been disappointing. The main problem is the judge in their case refused to grant the Hispanic farmers the right to sue as a class, as the black farmers did. That means each Hispanic farmer has to sue on their own, and the USDA deals with them on a case by case basis.

This response — that it's not the principle of the thing but the legal ruling that matters most — outrages the Hispanic farmers. What's made them even more furious is that within months after taking office, President Obama decided that the $1 billion the government has already given to the black farmers is insufficient, and he's requesting an additional $1.25 billion for them.

It's been a bitter disappointment to the Hispanic farmers who fought the Bush Justice Department for eight years. They thought it was going be different after Obama was elected.

Sad on many levels, but just further proves that you should trust and depend on the government for nothing.

ROGULSKI:Why are you here ?

Woman: To get some money

ROGULSKI: What kind of Money ?

Woman: Obama money

ROGULSKI: Where’s it comin; from ?

Woman: Obama

ROGULSKI: And where did Obama get it from ?

WOMAN: I don’t know, his stash. I don’t know. I don’t know where he got it from, but he’s givin’ it to us. And we love him. That’s why we voted for him. O-ba-ma. O-ba-ma.

(…)

ROGULSKI: Did you get an application to fill out yet?

WOMAN: I sure did. And I filled it out, and I am waiting to see what the results are going to be.

ROGULSKI: Will you know today how much money you’re getting?

WOMAN: No, I won’t, but I’m waiting for a phone call.

ROGULSKI: Where’s the money coming from?

WOMAN: I believe it’s coming from the City of Detroit or the state.

ROGULSKI: Where did they get it from?

WOMAN: Some funds that was forgiven (sic) by Obama.

ROGULSKI: And where did Obama get the funds?

WOMAN: Obama getting the funds from… Ummm, I have no idea, to tell you the truth. He’s the president.

Video and audio here: http://www.unitedliberty.org/articles/thousands-mob-downtown-detroit-for-free-government-money

Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/293101.html

Holy crapola, it's October. That means the Braves season is over. Can't figure out why in the world they'd be the FOX Saturday afternoon game. Especially against the Nats, ew.

[My Opera readers can see the schedule here.]

Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/292467.html

During the hours long monsoon that occurred on the Quad before kickoff this weekend, my T-Mobile G1 suffered catastrophic rain damage through my shorts pocket. At first the touchscreen wouldn't work, so finally I just turned it off and waited until Sunday when it would be totally dried out. But on Sunday, it wouldn't boot at all. Dead.

I am very unhappy.

So I got my old T-Mobile Dash back from Leon and have been setting it up again. Flashed it with a Windows 6.1 ROM made by kavana at xda-developers (awesome site), loaded up a weather widget and Opera Mini, and even got the data connections all figured out. (Haven't tried MMS yet.) The trickiest part was loading all my contacts, but I decided to just go the easy route and set up ActiveSync with my Exchange server at work. Now I have contacts and email. I even set up Gmail through IMAP - first time I've ever done that. Very cool stuff.

The Dash is a good phone, but it's almost three years old, which is ancient in today's tech world! But I didn't know what to do. Don't want to spend a fortune on another G1 when there are supposed to be a lot more Android phones hitting the market by Christmas. But there are no release dates... or are there!?

Turns out T-Mobile just today announced the pre-sale of the Cliq, Motorola's first Android phone. The highlight is MOTOBLUR, which is a platform to sync all your social networks along with contacts, email, etc. (Kind of like Trillian Astra?) I was a little wary, but the demo is so well done, they could have sold me one on the spot for my right kidney.

You can take a look at the new Motorola Cliq here: http://www.t-mobile.com/cliq.

Make sure you launch the BLUR demo. Pre-sale is scheduled for Oct. 19 - Nov. 1.