In an effort to leave something behind that the world would remember, Carl worked relentlessly until the day that he died, leaving behind no surviving family members.
He was not particularly successful in reaching his goal, but when they occasionally reminisce, a few people will recall a persistent and dedicated man.
Rest in peace, Carl.
/rizzn
The following story was found on Miami’s Politics Craigslist. It was supposed to be a day in the life of a typical conservative. It’s a little bit one sided, but hey, whatever. I’ve inserted the corrected paragaphs as to how this day should have gone for a real conservative independent thinker (the original is the indented paragraph).
Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of coffee, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as advertised.
Joe gets up at 6 AM and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. Back in the day, before liberal Hollywood made it trendy to drink bottled water, the municipalities made it a priority to have clean water at the tap. These days, however, if you want clean water, you must buy it bottled, and so Joe gets water from his Ozark Springs water dispenser and gets the coffee going. With his first swallow of coffee, he takes his daily medication. Back before the liberals created this culture of dysfunction, he didn’t know he needed three different kinds of psychiatric medicine.
All but $10 of Joe's medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry. In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained. Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air.
All but $10 Joe’s medications are paid for by the insurance plan he took out for his own company. He’s self employed, and due to the rising economy from the last six years of conservative fiscal policies, his company is doing well enough to pay for insurance. He prepares his morning’s breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because Ralph Nader advocated for the establishment of OSHA, something everyone can agree is a good thing. These days, most liberals won’t claim Ralph as one of their own, but that’s neither here nor there. In his morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His day isn’t complete without reading the ingredients, and he’s glad some liberal was there for that, too. Joe dresses, walks outside, and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because then President Richard M. Nixon helped establish the EPA so that industries would stop polluting our air.
He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.
He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidzed ride to work. Thank goodness for entreprenuers in the business like him, and conservative fiscal policies, otherwise the local government wouldn’t have the budget surplus to afford such a public luxury.
Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune. Its noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression. Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earne d more money over his lifetime. After work this evening, Joe plans to visit his father at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards.
Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because he’s an excellent businessmen, and he can plan for his future. He had tried to find a company in today’s world that would offer these things, but not finding them, he decided to strike out on his own and make his own way, instead of waiting to get taken advantage of by a much larger corporation. If Joe is hurt on the job, he has paid his company’s insurance policy so as to ensure he isn’t without options. It’s noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FDIC, an organisation created by the Glass-Seagall Act, signed into law by Republican President Herbert Hoover in 1932. Joe is a little uneasy about paying his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage given the widespread accounting scandal that’s been under investigation since 2004. He doesn’t want his house to be defaulted on because some greedy Enron-Exec clone wanted a bonus. After work this evening, Joe plans to visit his father at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because, again, of that outcast of the liberal clan, Ralph Nader, and his consumer advocacy.
He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification. Joe is happy to see his father, who is now retired and lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to. Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."
He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmer’s Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural lones. President Woodrow Wilson established that organisation back in 1921 (President Wilson, of course, being one of the most conservative Democratic presidents in history). The house didn’t have electricity until the biggest government liberal in the Executive Branch’s history, President Franklin D. Roosevelt demanded rural electrification. Joe is happy to see his father, who is now retired and lives on Social Security and a union pension. Joe sort of wishes that the liberals in congress could get with the conservatives and figure out a way for it to continue SS’s existence to when he gets to retirement age, as the liberals who created the program didn’t really think that far ahead. Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. Joe doesn’t pay him that much mind. He doesn’t consider himself a Republican or a Democrat. Both parties have screwed up big, and both parties have done some good. Joe considers himself fortunate to be able to make up his own mind, instead of feeling like he must goose-step behind one single party.
Joe does agree, however, that “We don’t need those big-governmetn liberals ruining our lives! My taxes are higher than they should be, I’m paying into a retirement system the government created that will never benefit me, there’s scandal at every level and in both parties, and no one seems to pay attention to the issues I’m concerned about!”
Joe then turns his radio off, turns on his iPod, and listens to some alternative media — podcasts. He downloaded them after he discovered that there were, in fact people out there who were concerned about what went on in the world, but weren’t mouthpieces of the Democrat or Republican party, but people with actual brains and independent analysis.
By Roy Mark
WASHINGTON -- Sweeping legislation to deregulate the U.S. telecommunications market finally hit Congress today. Long awaited and much anticipated, the bill calls for stripping away many of the current federal and state rules for the delivery of voice, video and data services.
Introduced by Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and co-sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act aims to level the playing field between telephone, cable and satellite companies while opening the door for the delivery of emerging broadband services.
Ensign's bill specifically calls for eliminating state and local franchise requirements for all video providers, including telephone companies moving into the field. Existing cable franchises would cease to exist upon enactment of the bill.
Ensign said state and local authorities would be protected from financial losses under his bill by requiring video providers that use existing rights of way to pay local authorities a fee of up to five percent of gross video revenues.
Broadband services, regardless of technology platform, are largely freed from federal and state regulation at both the wholesale and retail levels. The bill further states that consumers may not be denied access to any legal content provided over the facilities used for broadband communications, including Voice over IP (define) port blocking.
"Americans' ingenuity and creativity can provide more choices for consumers if government bureaucrats will get out of the way and allow our companies to compete," Ensign said at a Capitol Hill press conference. "Technology is moving forward but current laws are not."
As for interconnection fees between broadband providers and facilities-based providers, the legislation says the parties are required to establish "commercial arrangements." The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would only intervene if they fail to reach an agreement.
The legislation also targets state and local governments considering establishing their own broadband networks. Under the bill, local municipalities must give the private sector notice before going into business for themselves and allow non-government providers to bid on the project.
"We need to modernize our communications laws. Instead of stifling, government-managed competition, we need to move to market-controlled forces," Ensign said. "We need to get the investment dollars flowing."
Ensign cited the cell phone industry as a model of innovation with minimum government regulation. "This is the type of competition we want between cable and telephone companies," he said.
Incumbent telephone companies will be required to continue to provide unbundled access to their copper lines until 2011 and to make narrowband communications available for resale at rates established by the FCC.
The FCC also retains the authority granted in the 1996 Telecommunications Act to require service providers to comply with wiretapping requests. In addition, Ensign's bill retains prohibitions on obscene Internet materials.
The bill does not, however, deal with reforming the Universal Service Fund (USF), an issue Ensign said he was leaving to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).
Ensign's legislation drew a flurry of statements in support of telecom reform.
"Senator Ensign has produced the most deregulatory communications bill ever introduced in Congress, and, commendably so, in light of the vast marketplace changes that have occurred since passage of the 1996 act," said Randy May, a senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation.
Roger Cochetti, group director for U.S. public policy at the Computing Technology Industry Association, added, "Since the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the convergence of markets, the rapid advance of information and communications technology, and the ubiquity of the Internet have pushed the 96 Act to its limits.
Cochetti said while the Telecom Act did much to update the nation's regulatory structure, "It is timely and appropriate that we revisit that landmark legislation."
Forgot to post this yesterday: BlipMedia relaunch went off without a hitch. Mostly.
After much pestering, I re-did the site into something that updates itself, as we obviously don’t have the staff to keep up with weekly repostings on the front and back pages. with 1100 users now, it shoudn’t be a big deal.
1100 users, though. Amazing, nein?
There was a small hitch. For about 15 minutes after we uploaded the new version, we realized the way I engineered the page, that the user/pass box didn’t work. At ALL.
I fixed it with some creative layering. Most people won’t even notice the difference. It’s even cross platform-nice, too.
So now I’m focusing entirely on building the VoIP end of the business for the next couple months. That’s the plan, at any rate. I’ve still got a kernel to build that’s due to be out by Friday next. Good luck on that to me, I say.
I’m so sleepy tired.
/rizzn
She was a magical aunt. When I skinned my knee, Father applied a stinging liquid, but Aunt spoke and the pain faded. On Halloween I wanted a real witch's hat; Aunt provided. When she died gently at 140, songbirds flew from her mouth in all directions. Afterwards Father said "never speak of her to anyone."
I was chatting with Joel via email, and he asked me how we met in Middle School. It started me on a long run down about what I knew about who from back then. I figured I’d post it up here to act as a Google trap to any of the old crew I’ve lost contact with, in case they were to ego-search and find the page. It’s worked in the past, so hey, why not. It’s been edited a little bit to protect a few of the guilty (it’s not like you’d know the names anyways, quit yer bellyaching).
Joel: …refresh my memory of that how we met in middle school, Matthew said it involved some ass giving us trouble, I don't remember frankly, but out of all the people I knew in middle school, you and James K. are the only ones I kept up with. I still get bummed once in a while thinking about James. Its funny though that now, 14 years later, we're still good friends.
Me: Last time I heard from C—, it was back in 1999 or so, when I hired him to be on the sales team at Cox Communications. He was going down to Houston for school, and then married some chick down there. I haven’t heard from him in years, and he’s one of the few people I don’t search out from those days to get the skinny on. Color me uninterested.
John Wiseman is, as far as I know, still living in Arizona. He moved down there to be closer to his sister, if memory serves, who then got married and moved out of the state. He stayed behind, got into acting on commercials for a while, and decided that despite the fact that he had a degree in Computer Science (and is QUITE the impressive nerd in that respect), he wanted to do graphic design. He’s going to school for 3d Animation now. His parent’s phone number is STILL XXX-XXX-XXXX, which he is trackable through. As soon as I said that, you most likely remembered it. Ask me an interesting story about that phone number some time. It’s quite mysterious.
Todd Lloyd I spoke to about four years ago. He was doing quite well for himself in a Ren Faire troupe. Haven’t heard from him recently though. He graduated SFA from the Theatre Dept.
Jamie Crain ended up being a Tylerite, though and through. He went to TJC, and is pretty much bumming around the East Texas area from what I get through the grapevine. He hooked up with a different crowd in college, so I stopped hanging out with him.
Curt Dewitt I haven’t heard from in ages (he became a ‘hick’ the last part of middle school, I think). That Kevin McSomething or other I haven’t heard from since he moved to Nacodoches in 10th grade. Chris Wooddell I haven’t talked to in about six years or so, but right out of high school he married an internet sweetheart of his, and they were quite happily married (which was odd at the time – almost a novelty). She was a hottie, too. They lived in Tyler last I heard, but again, 8 years ago.
As to the other people tertiary to our middle school clan, M——- L—— went to Centenary College, and from what I heard became the town slut. That’s what my ex-girlfriend told me when we were going out (she was a Centenary attendee as well). Steven Shogry I just ran into last Christmas (remember, he played a Goblin (thanks to C——- being an ass) in our last (and his only) D&D ‘campaign’ right before we switched to BattleTech). He’s actually joined the Rangers. He’s a staunch Democrat, and he cried when Bush won the last election.
Most of the other people I periodically monitor are from high school, and are doing about how you would have predicted they might.
As to how we met, interestingly enough, it was Jamie Crain who put the crew together. He knew John Wiseman from Elementary School, and he met me in 6th grade English. He met Chris Wooddell in Math class, and we all started eating lunch together and playing D&D. Wooddell would DM. I stayed more or less under the radar until 7th grade or so, when I started getting beat and harassed fairly often by some jerks from P.E. I’m not sure if you remember, but I was about 5’3” and 70lbs exactly. One of bigger guys who would pick on me often was this behemoth name Bubba. I don’t know if you recall Bubba, but he was the only middle school kid who could legally drive a car – when they were in fifth grade. I think he was in his mid-20s or so.
At any rate, remember that rock/mall area? It was the place that was shaped like a triangle between the buildings and the basketball court near the bandhall and gym, and it had those benches made from some unidentifiable recycled material. I was on that walkway going towards the library, most likely to check out some stupid magic book with Jamie, and Bubba started pushing me around. Matthew, as I recall, put himself between me and Bubba, and used a word with two or more syllables in it and it completely shut the dummy down. It was after that you guys started hanging out at our lunch table.
Ahh, memory lane.
/rizzn
An anonymous coward thought it would be fun to insult me on my own blog. I’ve had it up to here (motions right around his nose) with people insulting me on my own site without being able to identify who they are. It hasn’t been a real problem recently (not since about nine months ago, save this episode), but this jackass has ruined it for everyone, at least for a while.
So the bottom line is you’ll have to register yourself a blogger account to comment on rizzn.com from here on out. If you want to insult me, you’ll have to give yourself a name, so I can do proper research on you and humiliate you in return.
I have a feeling I know who this joker is, but I don’t want to re-awaken old emnity if I’m wrong. We shall see.
/rizzn
