Bouncing Back

Why a Job Hopper Needs Sure Footing. So what if your résumé reads like a Top 10 list? Often, it's the career path that counts. By Cheryl Dahle. [New York Times: Business]

Dave sticks up for Moveable Type.

Dave Winer: "We gotta eat. No more begging. You want the software, find a way to help companies like Six Apart instead of making them miserable. You've now got the tools to communicate. Use them well. Use them better."

I agree with that. I remember running the books and paying the bills (or attempting to) at UserLand and trying to figure out how I was going to pay the bandwidth bills, the rent on the office, the electricity bill, the phone bill, the mail bill, salaries (Dave Winer, by the way, wasn't getting any salary while I was at UserLand) and, yes, even the W3C (I ended up not paying the W3C in the end cause it was about $5,000 and we didn't have enough money. $5,000 ended up paying our hosting bill for several months).

Believe me, every sale counted, even at $40 each. It's why I picked up the phone before it rang twice. I didn't want to lose a single sale.

I learned a long time ago that there's no such thing as a free lunch. It's something that you should remember when people say "come over here, you can get our software for free." I feel for Moveable Type, though. When you create expectations that your software is free it's hard to change business strategies.

[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

Tort(ure) Reform. There were many problems with the abuses at Abu Graib. First, the Red Cross has estimated that between 70%-90% of the prisoners were not connected to the insurgency or to any terror group. Second, the pictures released created what has become an internati [electablog]

Nascar Moves Races West and Sells a Fabled Track. Nascar eliminated a troublesome lawsuit and a historic racetrack in yet another watershed day of change for a sport determined to reach beyond its Southern roots. By Viv Bernstein. [New York Times: Sports]

South Africa Is Favored to Win Cup Bid. For the first time, the world's most popular sporting event, soccer's World Cup, will be awarded to an African country on Saturday. By Jere Longman. [New York Times: Sports]

This was without a doubt one of the most exciting basketball games I've ever seen.  pk

Long Night Belongs to Unlikely Reserve. Whatever else happens in Brian Scalabrine's career, he certainly enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame. By Jason Diamos. [New York Times: Sports]

InfoWorld: Verizon races toward wireless broadband. Until now, the missing link has always been wireless. But with the rollout of a new technology called EvDO (evolution, data optimized), Verizon wireless users will enjoy burst data rates of 2.4Mbps and average data rates of 300Kbps to 600Kbps. [Tomalak's Realm]

Terrorists kill thousands in senseless attacks. Wars force tattered families�crippled seniors and helpless infants�from their homes. Teenagers murder their classmates. Children disappear. In the midst of the world's carnage, it is only natural to wonder, Where is GOD in all this? Why doesn't He do something? Why does He allow this to happen?

As difficult as it may be to understand, God already has done something. He sent His Son to save us. But Jesus Christ did not enter this world to thwart criminals or overthrow governments. He came to change our hearts. Even the people of Jesus' day thought their Savior had came to liberate them from oppression. But He did not. He told them, "My kingdom is not of this world...."¹

This world�with all its godless wars, murders and inhumanity�exists under the dominion of Satan. Though the Bible clearly states the absolute authority of God, Satan has been given much power, and the evil in this world is under his control.² That's why the apostle Paul asserted, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against..the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."³

Satan was the first one in history to openly defy God. He also started a philosophy of life that was self-centered and rejected God's authority. That was the birth of sin. Sin assumes a self-designed life plan rather than one purposed by the Creator. Today sin affects the entire human race. We are all guilty of it, and therefore all deserve sin's penalty. "For the wages of sin is death...."⁴

According to the Bible, peace on earth will not come until after God's final judgments and Christ's Second Coming.⁵ But peace with God is available now for all who faithfully accept Jesus' death as payment for their sin. "Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."⁶ Yes, God permitted evil to be present in this world. He gave all of us, including Satan, free will. He allows us to choose whether or not we will follow Him. If God forced us to love and worship Him...that wouldn't be love. He lets us make up our own minds. Satan and death were defeated when Jesus Christ rose again after dying on the cross.⁷ Satan has no reprieve. But you still have a chance. You can come to know "the peace of God, which transcends all understanding"⁸ by acknowledging the sin in your life and believing that Christ's death on the cross paid sin's penalty for you and that His resurrection offers you new life.

We will never know all the answers to the question, "Why, God?" But when you open your life to Jesus Christ, He promises to walk with you through this world's troubles. You will begin to see the world through His eyes. And He will birth new feelings inside you that you may not have felt for a long time, if ever...feelings like love, joy, hope...and peace. Jesus said, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."⁹

Click Here if you would like to learn more about Jesus   or

Share Your Thoughts on the PointOfView316 Bulletin Board

When you ask yourself:

How did the events in Abu Graib prison occur?  How can people be so heartless and brutal to kill anyone the way that Nick Berg was executed?   How can any group of human beings hold body parts for ransom?  What creates these monsters and how to we combat them?

Remember the words of the Apostle Paul

Ephesians 6:10-20 

 Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. [11] Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. [12] For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. [13] Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. [14] Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, [15] and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; [16] in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. [17] And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. [18] With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, [19] and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, [20] for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

   

 

As concerned as I am about Al Qaeda,  persons that make comments like this worry me just as much.  Anyone making comments such as those by Rush Limbaugh need mental counseling and a Damascus road experience.  

Conservatives: Watch your great leader squirm and lie through his teeth to get out of defending torture as a prank. Conservatives: Watch your great leader squirm and lie through his teeth to get out of defending torture as a prank First, let's review the comments in question: CALLER: It was like a college fraternity prank that stacked up naked men -- LIMBAUGH: Exactly. Exactly my point! This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off? LIMBAUGH: And these American prisoners of war -- have you people noticed who the torturers are? Women! The babes! The babes are meting out the torture. LIMBAUGH: You know, if you look at -- if you, really, if you look at these pictures, I mean, I don't know if it's just me, but it looks just like anything you'd see Madonna, or Britney Spears do on stage. Now watch Limbaugh as he attempts to give the "context" of his comments -- "was actually relating to the media." Yes, we love it when Rush relates to the media. Did we mention Rush is the media. This dispenser of bile reaches more people, makes more money, than almost all the television news personalities combined. Who exactly is "the media"? Rush Limbaugh's sponsor, Disney to name one. The "liberal media" sham has run it's course. LIMBAUGH: And I -- I'll tell you why I used Skull and Bones. You know, I was tweaking them, because Bush is Skull and Bones, and it's Yale, and they think Bush didn't qualify to get into Yale. That Bush is a phony-baloney and they hate -- normally they hate Skull and Bones. The Media hates Skull and -- except those that are members. But they hate it, because it's super-secret, and it doesn't allow them in. And so I thought I was actually relating to the media by calling this a Skull -- I thought I was helping them criticize Bush. Yeah, this is the kind of stuff Bush did in college instead of learning stuff. But no, they missed that totally. I really was trying to relate to them. I was trying to give them a line that I thought they would appreciate the nuance of. But no, they've totally missed it, because they're reacting in shock and emotion and seeking an opportunity to inflict a little knick or two, fire some BBs at the battleship of Rush Limbaugh in an attempt to inflict a little harm here. But we're not, we're not only still floating, we're still steaming through the waters here. So no, I've been amazed that they missed the Skull and Bones re - I couldn't -- I didn't even say college initiation, a caller said that. I said Skull and Bones. I said it specifically for a reason, because I was trying to help them take another route to Bush. They've missed it, and they're coming back at me with it. Idiots. [ ... ] Now, let's look at this -- this prison business. When the first two or three pictures came out, and you know which ones they are -- the pyramid picture, which is what looks like a Skull and Bones initiation, the pyramid, the guys in the hoods, and we've got the female prison guard with a cigarette dangling from the mouth. And we had this -- the guy in all -- in all black, hooded, and so forth, wires attached to various extremities. And there was -- there was one other picture. And I said, "Well, you know, what's the big deal here? This just looks like an average Skull and Bones initiation." That quote, made the first day the pictures were published, is all that I am quoted as saying. Well, maybe one other little quote. I forget what it is. But in this instance, not one journalist -- and that's what they are -- not one journalist has picked up the phone or sent me an e-mail, and said, "What do you mean by this. Do you really think this?" Not one journalist has dared ask me for the context of the remark. Not one person -- not one -- no Conservative journalist has either. If there are Conservatives upset with me, I want to tell -- no one has gotten hold of me. And I'm assuming that they're not listening to the program, because otherwise they would know the context of all this. You can't -- I mean, I've spent 10 to 12 hours on this subject and said a whole lot on it, but that one comment seems to serve the purpose of those who have an agenda. We thank David Brock for providing Rush Limbaugh with the sound of his own voice. No wonder he needs narcotics By editor (mailto:editor@americanassembler.com). [Newsblog]

Spectacle of Shame: James Inhofe -- Josh Marshall gets sentimental. Spectacle of Shame: James Inhofe -- Josh Marshall gets sentimental As I said earlier today, I don't think I can remember a more shameful spectacle in the United States Congress, in my living memory, than the comments today of James Inhofe, the junior senator from Oklahoma. Clearly, it is part of the RNC talking points now to shift the brunt of the media storm from the abuses themselves to the political storm they've created. But no one that I saw at least rose more naturally to the effort than this man. No one else's heart seemed so matched to the deed, with his snarls at "humanitarian do-gooders" (i.e., the Red Cross) trying to monitor compliance with the Geneva Conventions. Read the rest. It's worth it. By editor (mailto:editor@americanassembler.com). [Newsblog]

Once again, I am sending a post with a very heavy heart.  Words cannot express the empathy that I feel for the family of Nick Berg.  Being from Philadelphia, this hits close to home.  These are my neighbors. The horrific description of their loved one's last moments is a weight that no one should ever  have to carry. 

 

We will never know the degree to which the abuses in Abu Ghraib prison contributed to the vicious nature of this young man's execution.  These terrorists have already demonstrated their brutality and the degree to which they disregard human life.   In western culture it is unimaginable that Nick Berg's death could be considered a response to the humiliation that the Iraqi prisoners faced.  In our culture this does not equate to an eye for and eye.  But that's just it, we are not dealing with western culture.  

 

The Iraqi people have their own culture.  And while Islamic religious fundamentalists and terrorists are as extreme to the tenets of their faith as the KKK and  Arian Brotherhood are to the tenets of Christianity, the core Islamic view of the roles of men and women and sex are vastly different than our own.  Therefore to have subjected the Iraqi male prisoners to sexual humiliation at the hands of American woman was probably the greatest offense they could have experienced.  A fact that I am certain was not lost on those that committed the abuses.  Regardless of rank was it wise to have female military personnel interacting with Iraqi male prisoners?  This is just one of many questionable decisions.   

 

It is time for those responsible for the strategic planning and implementation of the war on terrorism and ALL the personnel on the ground to wake up, smell the coffee and understand that they are not dealing with groups that are bound by rules of the Geneva convention or western rules of combat and fair play.  They are going to wage war using their rulebook and do so with the conviction that their God Allah is on their side.   No amount of negative press,  western news coverage ( liberal or conservative) or rhetoric will redefine their beliefs or their actions. The terrorists know who they are and what they believe and they are unified in their belief.

 

The question now is who are we as Americans.  How do we define our beliefs and how true will we be to them.  Are we one nation under God?  And, do we believe that the God of our faith(s) approves of our actions.  What unites us as Americans?  How did we create an environment that allowed abuses like those at Abu Ghraib?  How can people think that saying that they were just following orders excuses unjust actions?  We cannot change the views of terrorists and we cannot play by their rules.  If  our actions stoop to their level we have lost this war. We have to, by our actions, win the support of Islamic moderates for the cause of democracy and peace in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East.  

 

In An Hour of Grief -- It is time for America to Define It's Identity

Contact with Google.

I have been emailing with David Krane, a PR person at Google, who works alongside Cindy McCaffery. That's good. He had emailed me an invite to use Gmail in the first wave of invites, but my very crude spam system coughed it up, and then hurled his follow-up email. Once I knew it was there and got back from Europe I tried to use it, only to find out that the invite had expired. Over the weekend David very kindly set me up with a new one, and now I have an empty Gmail account, dave.winer. Obviously it's not going to be much use until it starts getting some email, so send me a message if you feel so inclined.

As noted yesterday, it was disappointing that the new Blogger interface, which looks quite nice, doesn't support RSS 2.0. I'm far from the only one who's commenting. It would be so easy to do, so not evil, so grown-up, so much appreciated if they would just do it. Pretty soon RSS is going to be known as the format of the BigPubs, which is totally ironic because I'm one of the original bloggers. Come on guys, what if I say please? Please, I'm down on bended knees.

Another note, I now have four different logins at Google: Orkut, AdSense, Blogger and Gmail. Each with a different username and password. Now here's an area where Google could be a leader, provide an alternative to Passport, something we really need, a Google-size problem.

Both user interfaces, Gmail and the new Blogger are very slick, but Gmail is the more sophisticated. Those guys should get busy with blogging, if they're not already working on a blogging interface. And don't be surprised when Google announces a centralized aggregator a la Bloglines (hopefully not with a three-pane interface). That will be Microsoft's cue to release announce theirs, and we're off to the races. (I bet Sun buys Bloglines.) That's why it's so incredibly important that the format coalesce now before it becomes a basis for competition, like the browser wars of the 1990s. That's why I'm beggin. (Of course, with the great running start RSS has, this could be the final act for the Tech industry. Imagine if the users told them to get with the program or die. That would be very very cool.)

[Scripting News]

Brown's promise: yet to be fulfilled. Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, public education is still separate - and unequal - in many schools. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories]

TV News Is Bad For Your Brain. A new study has revealed that people who rely on television to get their news are more likely to be misinformed on the facts about Iraq, WMD's and Iraq's ties to 9/11 than those who get their news from other sources or even who don't follow the news at all.

This is very interesting reading. plk

Japanese Find a Forum to Vent Most-Secret Feelings. In a society in which subtlety is prized above all, millions of Japanese use the Channel 2 Web site to bare their souls. By Norimitsu Onishi. [New York Times: Technology]

Spider-Man's Major League Lesson. Baseball tried to marginally profit by playing to children through a colorful comic book character. America spoke out, swiftly and decisively. By Bt Harvey Araton. [New York Times: Sports]

Ty Cobb, the Chicago "Black Sox", Pete Rose, Tommy Johns, "performance enhancing supplements", questionable records.   If MLB survived all this it can surely survive Spider Man.