No Guns For The Mentaly Ill

The Congress is considering banning weapons from the mentally ill.  This goes back to the fact that rich white people, want to keep guns from the poor and minorities. This is to keep us from rising up, and creating a governement that favors the masses. All that will come from this is a spat of Latinos, blacks, Asians and poor whites being diagnosed as mentally ill.

Illnesses that tend to be rich white problems, such as Alzheimers are called diseases while ones more prevalent to other races, such as Bi-Polar disorder (and formerly Thyroid diseases) tend to be diagnosed as mental in nature.

And then families of these ill wouldn’t be allowed to own guns. That means practically no American family would be able to defend themselfs against a mentally ill family member. Having a parent who has Bi-Polar, I understand that the mentally are not always sick. That parent is most of the time fine, but a few weeks every year they are ill. Sometimes that parent will become violent, but it is not bad enough for that person to be locked into an insane asylum.

I just hope the gun lobby won’t get their way another time.

Filed under: American Politics, Black Matters, Local Politics

times square

times square, photography by Joshua Davis (articnomad).

 

Filed under: Photography

Get Your Share of Government Cheese

It’s tax time, and right now people are wondering how they can get there share of the money, while paying as little. Here’s what I say to those middle class people who want a bigger piece of government money.

Because it is more responsible to spend your own. The more money you take from the government the more taxes you pay, or the bigger our deficit gets. Also I think most Americans get there fair share of government money.

A homeless man on food stamps probably doesn’t use the interstates and state roads. You probably do not use food stamps but do use the road. I think the amount of “welfare” the government gives out is equal, in fact I think rich and middle class people may receive more government subsidy than poor people.

And if for some reason you don’t like the government “wasting” money on food stamps, housing and other services, then donate money to a not for profit that does something that you support, the more you donate to the not for profit, the less taxes you’ll pay.

Filed under: American Politics, Economy and Business

coming storm

coming storm, photography by Joshua Davis (articnomad).

 

Filed under: Photography

Fully Working Ubuntu with a Compaq Presario V2000

Edit: I no longer a Compaq Presario V2000, so I can no longer provide help for any issues you may be having with Ubuntu.

I’ve had good experiances with Compaq and Linux (except for Redhat), but getting Linux fully operational on my Presario V2000 laptop was another story. But I finaly got 3d and WiFi working. Here are the tutorials I used, one found at the Ubuntu forums, the other at WordPress.com.

A Fast Way To Install ATIand NVIDIA Drivers

One of the first questions Linux users often ask, after installing their distro of choice, is “How do I install Nvidia drivers?” Although the process has been hit and miss in the past, one of the best solutions that I have come across is Envy for the Ubuntu distribution. The process is breathtakingly easy and works like a charm everytime. Since version 0.8.1 Envy now installs Ati drivers as well as Nvidia. The process is as easy as :

wget http://albertomilone.com/ubuntu/nvidia/scripts/envy_0.8.1-0ubuntu6_all.deb

sudo dpkg -i envy_0.8.1-0ubuntu6_all.deb

then press Alt+Cntrl+F1 to kill X-Windows and type
envy

at the terminal. From there press a few “Yes” and you have the latest stable Nvidia drivers installed on your computer. The program even brings you back into X-Windows. Envy is one very sweet script. The author of the program is Alberto Milone, better known as tseliot in the Ubuntu Forums. He was nice enough to answer to some questions on Envy, as well Ubuntu.

*Note for users of previous Envy versions you should first do these two steps before the installation of version 0.8.1

sudo aptitude purge envy

sudo rm -R /usr/share/envy

HOWTO: Broadcom 4318 Wireless Cards

This HOWTO is for people who have a Broadcom 4318 Wireless card in their laptop. This card can sometimes be a bit difficult to setup, so I have provided a working method (for me, anyway).

To check if you have a Broadcom 4318 Card, open up the terminal (click the Applications button, then Accessories, and then Terminal) and run (just copy and paste the code from the code boxes throughout the HOWTO [in the terminal, this is done by right click anywhere and clicking paste, ctrl+v doesn't work])

Code:

lspci | grep Broadcom\ Corporation

If your output looks similar to

Code:

0000:05:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

or you can see the string BCM4318 in the output, then this should work for you.

Please note that this was really designed to be run on a very fresh install, right after Ubuntu has come up for the first time. It is mostly likely to work then. If you have tried other attempts at making this card work, I have no promises for you, but it only takes two minutes, so it is worth a shot (most people can get it to work, even on a not-so-fresh install).

The point of this HOWTO is to make it as simple as possible (not to educate people – if you want to know how this works, open the script and read it) for people who have just installed Ubuntu for the first time, so I wrote a script and have provided a set of drivers that worked for me. Not all drivers will work with ndiswrapper, so please use the ones I have provided.

The script requires no internet connection after it is downloaded…all required files are on the CD you installed Ubuntu with, and the package manager should recognize this.

Feisty

Download http://ubuntu.cafuego.net/pool/feist…buntu2_all.deb and double click it to install. Reboot. Enjoy wireless.

Dapper and Edgy

1. Put the CD that you installed Ubuntu with in the CD drive.
2. Download this file to your Desktop (the Firefox default, so if you haven’t changed it, that’s where it went/will go).
3. Open a terminal (click the Applications button, then Accessories, and then Terminal)
4. Change the current directory to the desktop (copy and paste the following commands exactly into your terminal by right clicking anywhere on the terminal and clicking paste)

   Code:

   cd ~/Desktop

5. Extract the compressed file

   Code:

   tar -xf bcm4318*.tar.gz

6. Run the script, which will install ndiswrapper on your system, and set it up.

   Code:

   sudo ./ndiswrapper_setup

7. Use the internet (you will have to open the System menu at the top of the screen, go to Administration, and then click Networking. Configure the interface eth1 or wlan0, and connect to your wifi network)
8. If you are an Acer user, you will need to use the acerhk driver.
9. If it doesn’t work, reboot.
10. If that doesn’t work, read the troubleshooting section below.
11. If you still can’t make it work, try reading this post by The Raven, which is so long I can’t even fit it in here without doubling the length of the post

Filed under: Guides and Howtos

Are Gonzales’ eMails Really Lost?

Patrick Leahy insists key emails (in the Alberto Gonzales attorney firing investigation) are not really lost, they’re just being withheld. He says “You can’t erase e-mails, not today. They’ve gone through too many servers.” You actually can erase them because they should only be stored, on one, or at most two systems. If both of those systems where manipulated by the government, the emails could have possibly been permanently erased.

While concern about who has, and is withholding this documents may be unrelated, a larger quesion looms. Did the Bush adminstration use non government servers to conduct presidential business. If so it would be in violation of laws requiring that they use governement servers.  Some speculate that Republican National Committee (RNC) servers may have been used, and of course those would have been even easier for the Bush adminstration, to have manipulated so that the eMails “disaperead.”

If that is the case, it will be interesting to see how the RNC might become involved in this investigation.

Filed under: American Politics, Technology

MySpace Security

The 30 Days of MySpace bugs seem to becoming fruitation. I got a friend request from a girl in a provocative position, no biggy for MySpace, and out of boredom clicked her profile. Then there was a big blue box blocking most of the profile saying “adult content, download MS Viewer.”

Of course I knew downloading this so called “MS Viewer” was probably going to install a virus, or at least steel my MySpace password. So MySpacers beware of this.

Filed under: Technology

Why Going Underground Doesn’t Sense in Tysons Corner

This is my reply to Washington Post commentary entitled, Why Going Underground Makes Sense in Tysons Corner.

I have seen the full set of design documents — a whopping 786 sheets of drawings, a dozen technical reports, cost estimates. They are comprehensive and compelling.

So you really read 786 sheets? Or just glanced through them. If you did thumbed through them how can you claim they prove a underground option would be cheaper?

Entailing almost totally underground construction, the tunnel option would be cleaner and much less disruptive of life above ground. Building an elevated line would require major road reconfiguration and bring years of severe traffic congestion exacerbated by construction trucks continually rolling through the heart of Tysons, along with construction noise and increased air pollution.

Fairfax County approved a transit orineted design propasal, which will certaintly mean more development along the rail line. During the same peroid of rail construction disruption, new buildings will also disrupt traffic.

But immediate and long-term aesthetic benefits still constitute one of the best arguments in favor of the tunnel and against an elevated line. Visualize a parade of tall, structural supports soaring over and slicing through the heart of Tysons. Leesburg Pike would never become a walkable boulevard.

Alexandria has elevated portions of Metro rail, still intact and used. Those stations also have little parking (30 metered spots)… which means most people come by walking or bus. The bus is a valid form of mass transit, so to support an argument for aesthics by claiming hostility to mass transit is stupid. About the only point I can agrea about is above ground rail will be more ugly.

Why build something that we will want to tear down a few decades from now?

Because right now the goal is to get Metro out to Dulles. Later on additions and changes can be made, including a tunnel option.

Filed under: Local Politics

Students Shackled for Flag Burning

Three students, one a U.S. citizen, the other Europeans, where arrested for burning the American Flag. They appeared in court and bail was set at $15,000.

Weather or not you agrea with flag burning, these people are not violent criminals, and thus do not need leg shackles. These people where charged with many crimes, such as reckless endargment, and criminal mischief. Arson was part of the charges. Their bond has been set at $15,000. Then in a local case, two teens are charged with arson (one burned down a house, the other a bridge), and are released into their parents custody. One more reason the justice system should just be called the criminal system.

Filed under: American Politics

Why The Government Should Pay For Rail

Critics have always decried how the Washington DC region wants the goverment to pay for metrorail. They claim other cities paid for their own systems. True, those cities raised the money from taxing the employeers. As it turns out the goverment (and it’s contractors) are the largest employyer in the region. And of course the government is untaxable. So they want the residents of the region to be the underwriters.

Filed under: Local Politics