Obama says discrimination against gays is generally unconstitutional!
It's about time!
From the article: "In a key shift on gay rights, the administration says a section of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional as applied to gay couples who are legally married under state law." The good news is that we're finally moving in the right direction. The bad news is that this still only applies to gay couples who are "legally married under state law" and does nothing to help gay couples who live in states where gay marriage is not yet legal.
I'm personally a heterosexual male in a long-term committed relationship. However, I have yet to hear a valid argument against gay marriage that isn't colored by religious prejudice or general ignorance and bigotry. In general, what you do in the privacy of your own home, as long as it stays in your own home and does not affect me in mine, or me in public, is none of my business. We, as a society, cannot legislate behavior or personal choice.
It's time for American society to make the next intellectual leap in public policy and social ideology.
If you can manage to muster a coherent argument either way, I'd love to know what you think.
Anonymous Speaks
Ars Technica has written an expose on the recent attacks on HBGary and HBGary Federal. Aaron Barr has sufficiently embarrassed himself and provided adequate water-cooler fodder for those of us in the security industry. This article is great because it also highlights some simple ways to protect yourself against similar attacks. Moral of the story: Escape. Escape. Escape..
Ubuntu
Because it's good for you.
That is all.
Edit: I have been using Ubuntu almost exclusively since starting my new job, 2 months ago. I love it. It definitely requires a little bit more comfort with the way computers work than a cotton-candy operating system such as Windows or OSX. However, once you get over the intimidation of a black terminal (and practice a little with vimtutor) it's really a very nice operating system for the up-and-coming technical elite. I'm sure once I get more comfortable with it, I may find that I enjoy some of the more "Hard Core" Linux flavors, as I believe Ubuntu is considered "cotton-candy" in the Linux world. However, for someone who is just getting their feet wet in the Dark Side Hot Tub, I'm quite pleased.
The Egg
Recently, dracoling shared with me The Egg by Alex Weir. It's a very interesting and thought provoking story and has done a lot to make me much more comfortable with some of my non-Christian theories of the universe. I believe very strongly in morality, ethics, laws of nature and the like which govern every living creature. I call these "hard limits", and whatever may have created them: "God". However, in American society today, it's rare to have a belief in God "accepted" unless it's the God defined by one of the Big Three. I'm so glad to have my mind opened to an alternative way of looking at life and the world.
I'm in no way saying I consider this story to be truth or reality. However, it certainly is nice to see a "viable" alternative to the imposed doctrine of the ruling class.
Give it a quick read. What do you think?
[EDIT: 2011-02-17]
I think many people would agree this could be an awesome movie twist that would blow Inception clean out of the water. Here's Andy's policy on films based on his work.