This blog has been upgraded to MovableType 3.14 and the new anti-comment spam plugin for MovableType has been installed as well. I haven't actually had any comment spam since I implemented TypeKey, but I like to use this blog as my testing area for the MT server we run at work.
If you haven't watched Unforgivable Blackness this week, find out when it's being repeated on your PBS station (most will re-run it this weekend). I haven't watched the second half yet, but last night's installation of the new Ken Burns documentary was fantastic. It's the first Burns documentary I've seen in high definition, and the footage of Jack Johnson fighting his way to the Heavyweight Championship was great, considering the age of the film. The second half will be more disturbing, I'm sure, but just as interesting. It's amazing, and disturbing, to witness the blatant racism of an era that's less than a century old, to see white supremacy "justified" by the "science" of the day, and the outrageous lengths people would go to just to protect their fragile and erroneous world view. It makes you wonder what they'll think of us in a hundred years...
I spent much of my Martin Luther King Jr. Day (which we do get off, though we don't get Veteran's Day, President's Day, or Columbus Day, since apparently universities don't have to appear sensitive to those groups) helping our local AARP Tax Aide office get their computers networked wirelessly and securely. They prepare taxes for low income and/or elderly persons for no charge. My neighbor is a member of the local Retired Senior Volunteer Program who runs the computers for this yearly. He said last year that they prepared about 1100 returns, so it was definitely worth a trip from me out there to get their network secured and encrypted.
Here are a few good reasons not to live in Tennessee:
MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) -- Defense attorney Leslie Ballin called it the "jury pool from hell."
The group of prospective jurors was summoned to listen to a case of Tennessee trailer park violence.
Right after jury selection began last week, one man got up and left, announcing, "I'm on morphine and I'm higher than a kite."
When the prosecutor asked if anyone had been convicted of a crime, a prospective juror said that he had been arrested and taken to a mental hospital after he almost shot his nephew. He said he was provoked because his nephew just would not come out from under the bed.
Another would-be juror said he had had alcohol problems and was arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover officer. "I should have known something was up," he said. "She had all her teeth."
Another prospect volunteered he probably should not be on the jury: "In my neighborhood, everyone knows that if you get Mr. Ballin (as your lawyer), you're probably guilty." He was not chosen.
The case involved a woman accused of hitting her brother's girlfriend in the face with a brick. Ballin's client was found not guilty.
Ouchh, that's one hell of a toothache.
