The-Asterisk

I was reading E.J. Dionne Jr's latest piece in the Washington Post called Violent talk blocks sane gun laws . He even coins (or popularizes) a new term, militarized rhetoric , which is always followed by the words "from the right". I will not debate the one-sidedness of that statement. He mentions that we cannot have a sane debate about reducing the number of rounds you can legally carry in a gun clip (or more correctly, a magazine.) It is reported that Jared Loughner had a Glock-19 9mm handgun with a high-capacity 33 round magazine. Supposedly it jammed which is how bystanders were able to subdue the gunman and keep him from emptying the gun on more people. Let's be honest, even if magazines of more than 5 rounds were made retroactivelly illegal, the millions in circulation would always exist. What came to mind when I was thinking about this subject was that Congress doesn't know how to pass a clean bill. The first thing out of the mouth of the Democrat minority ...

I have tweeted, read and listened to the echo chamber since word came out early Saturday of the tragedy in Tucson. It was no time before Paul Krugman hit the keys, blaming right wingers and Tea Party members for the vitriol and toxic atmosphere. Paul, stick to economics . At least there is no right or wrong with economics, just guesses and opinions, plus... no one cares what you think about economics. What I want to see is how much money it costs to prosecute the shooter and how long it will take to make the case against him. The feds have already appointed a lawyer, Judy Clarke ( she is a spitting image of Paul McCartney ) who has defended the Unabomber, Zacharias Moussaoui (the 20th 9/11 hijacker), serial bomber Eric Rudolph, Susan Smith (the 'mom' who drowned her kids by driving her car into a lake), Saddam Hussein and Benito Mussolini. Well, I made the last two up, but it could have happened if they had been in the US... In about 12 seconds this nutbag detoured our national...

I just had to make a quick comment about the strange kabuki dance that has gone on between Apple, Verizon and the press/rumorsphere. It has been common knowledge for several months that Verizon would be carrying the Apple iPhone on its CDMA network, especially in light of the fact that they are currently carrying the iPad. It is kinda cute in a way, isn't it? Keeping a secret like that. I had a Verizon rep tell me on Monday that the rumors were false. Really! Like the small town couple who got engaged, bought a ring at a local jewelry store, visited the town hall for their marriage license, rented the church and arranged for all of the flowers and food, but tried to keep it 'hush-hush' and then got a little angry when they found out that everyone already knew when they announced it. Sheesh...

I watched Steve Ballmer's keynote address at CES last night via live stream. I say keynote, but it was more like a tag-team infomercial, but whatever... that is what CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) is really all about. Back in the day, CES was where TVs, audio equipment, radar detectors, electronic toys, video games and such were shown in January after Comdex (the Computer Dealers Exposition) had taken place in November. Both were humongous shows, both were held in Las Vegas and both attracted upwards of 200,000 attendees. I regularly attended Comdex from 1984 until its demise in 2004. Now, CES has become the premier stage for new product introductions. Back to the subject at hand... Those that have read my blogs or may have tripped over some of my 'guest' posts on other's blogs know that I am passionate about the fusion of new technology with our pedestrian computer needs. I have long advocated for interfacing touch screen technology with portable handheld units an...