I was browsing iTunes this morning and came upon a pre-release track for the new Nirvana album With the Lights Out. The track is an acoustic version of Lithium which appeared on the Nevermind album as well as Unplugged in New York.

I have been thinking about moving this site to a different host so that I could get SSH access to my account and its databases. Along with that, I have been working on a new database structure that is somewhat different to what is considered normal for a “blog”. I’ll explain more when it and its corresponding PHP is complete.

That’s right, Gmail now has POP3 access available for its users. You can read more about it here.

My database management class had an interesting discussion today on privacy. The first issue was whether we as Americans have privacy. The fairly unanimous outcry from the people in the class was there is no privacy for the most part. Pretty much everything you do has some sort of tracking attached to it. Buy groceries, get a credit check, go to the doctor, it all gets recorded somewhere.

The discussion then moved to what should be private and who need privacy. It turned into one of those recursive discussions that ended in, “If you have nothing to hide then why do you need privacy? But if no one has anything to hide there is no reason to invade their privacy”.

I see the privacy issue as a very touchy subject. Who defines privacy and at what point does our society turn into “1984” or “Brave New World“?

I honestly have no idea where I stand on the issue because I feel like I do not have anything to hide, but at the same time I think that the 4th Amendment needs to be upheld.

After getting to school this morning I thought I would try to access the site that I mentioned yesterday to see if it was possible from on campus.

Not surprisingly I was not blocked. So, I went through Russell’s comments and found that every comment I had made had been deleted. One comment that I remember posting had to do with voter turnout and I mentioned the snow and how it had not hindered voting here. He also deleted the comment where I asked him a question about his political views. None of these comments were flames whatsoever, but Russell is not going to address that or admit that his actions were unneccessary.

This post is not meant to be an attack on Russell, it is an attack on his methods and his censorship. I know that his site is private property so Freedom of Speech does not apply but since the democrats/left are so against violating the Constitution. So Mr. Beattie, thank you for being the exception to the rule. It’s posts like this, this, and this that give the left a bad name.

I understand not agreeing with each other but being hypocritical is a whole different ball game. I visited Russell Beattie’s blog and posted a couple of comments challenging some of his liberal rhetoric. None of the posts were bad or attacking, they basically just questioned a couple of his posts. Well, I guess Russell did not enjoy it and since I posted the second question I have not been able to reach his site. I know the site is up because friends have been able to get there.

What is really funny about the whole situation is that most liberals (Russell included) have been kicking and screaming for the 1st and 4th Amendments to be protected by not electing Bush, yet when someone says something that contradicts what they have to say they just shut it right off and forget their own words. Like I have said time and time again, they only want what suits them at a particular time. That is ok Russell, I have a domain and have the freedom to express myself here. Keep censoring things, let people only read what you want them to.

I think I may have finally discovered the reasoning behind the Left’s point of view and interestingly enough it may be education… From what I have been reading recently a lot of people from the Left seem to believe that George Bush is on a road to destroy their Constitutional rights. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it is not going to happen.

Making comments like “Say goodbye to your 4th Amendment rights” are ignorant and they prove that there is no understanding of the way the Supreme Court and our democratic system works. We have not had a Patriot Act case in the Supreme Court but I am going to predict that we will in the near future and I can guarantee that the 4th Amendment will be upheld, no matter who is on the Court at the time. How can I be so sure you ask? There is a concept called ‘precedence‘ that the Supreme Court follows because of its Constitutional obligation. Precedence basically means that previous rulings are used to make decisions in future rulings. Out of this we have seen Miranda Warning and Roe v. Wade.

The Supreme Court’s job is to interpret the law in relation to former cases and make their rulings based on that. They are not there to make moral decisions, they are there to be interpreters. For this reason they have turned to the 14th Amendment for the gay marriage issue. They feel that it is a moral issue and should be left up to the states to decide, which, is the way it should be. Bush will never be able to get a Gay Marriage Ban put in place because the Supreme Court would immediately strike it down as being unconstitutional based on their previous rulings on the subject.

Please, I beg of everyone, not just those on the left, to read and inform yourself. There are too many people getting information from one source and one source only and taking that as the final word. Do research on the things that you really feel affect you and come to your decision with your own cognitive power instead of listening to someone like Michael Moore fill your mind with partial truths mixed in with lies.

Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson will be making a presentation here a week from tonight. From the description she will be giving a multimedia presentation over her career and how her part in the Simpsons has changed everything.

I am really looking forward to attending because, if you did not know, I am a huge, huge, Simpsons fan.

Let’s face it, the left and more specifically the Democrats, shot themselves in the foot this election. They supported a candidate that could not give a straight answer or explain his policies. They supported a man who’s morals were waivering and most American’s want certainty. They also do not want to change presidents in the middle of a war.

But I think the real thing that hurt the Democrats were comments like this, this, or this.

I can understand being dissappointed in not having your candidate elected but to be so angry, hateful, and just plain rude is not anything to be so open about. To say that this country would have been better off with Kerry elected is not only ignorant, it is almost stupid. How do you know it would have been better? You don’t. He could have been the worst president in the world, but you would not complain, why? Because you voted for him. You thought that his stance on things would suit the needs of you. Maybe it is time to get off of the self-centered crap and focus on the big picture, the country. The goal of the government is to serve the people, notice it is not to serve “a person” but “the people”.

To be honest, I am tired of people being such babies when they do not get their way. It is almost as bad as listening to 2 yr. olds whine about not getting their toy in the store. Until someone can give me hard proof evidence that this country would have, without a doubt been better off with Kerry, then I am going to have to say that 51% of American voters wanted Bush back and that’s the way the world turns. And since there is no way to prove that Kerry could have done a better job, I am content to believe that this country is on its way to being stronger.

Do this country a favor, drop the partisan facade and back the country and don’t worry about your own self-interests.

I was going through Amazon.com this morning and stumbled across the new Nirvana box set, which has finally been given a name, “With the Lights Out”. The description reads that the box set will have 81 tracks with 68 of those being previously unreleased. Needless to say, I will be picking this up the day it comes out on November 23.

The snow will slowly be melting today after a total snowfall of about 6-7 inches in most places. My morning walk to class should be fairly interesting with the wind and the cold.