SwimFinsSF

Free Speech and the Air Waves

You know… I’m not the biggest fan of Howard Stern. I think he’s a brash blow hard who relies on shock appeal to maintain listeners with very little interesting content or important issues to justify the shock. Those who know me know that I’ve got a tendency to listen to obnoxious radio like the right wing shows and the relgious right - largely to sharpen my tallons. I listen to these to understand where they’re coming from because, even if I think their position is insane and hateful, at least it has been considered and refined over time and its hard to prepare to debate issues if you don’t understand the counter point.. But Howard Stern is a different matter - he’s just trying to shock for the pure sport of it often and invariably after listening to him for any length of time I find myself screaming ‘WHAT THE FUCK’ at the radio and changing the chanel.

All that said I find this very disturbing:

Radio giant suspends Stern in crackdown against indecency

Not because I need to defend the man.. But more from the perspective that any large radio or TV conglomerate having ownership of a large enough swath of the broadcasting frequencies has the ability to silence any perspectives that they don’t agree with and essentially inhibit free speech.. The idea that one company has the ability to control in any way what we see and hear scares the living shit out of me. Radio and TV already has a frightening ability to influence the perspectives of the politics of this country by controlling how information is presented and the only saving grace in this is the fact that ownership is distributed and no single opinion dominates… The idea that a ‘holding company’ can control the content of its affiliates is very dangerous…

anyway… I need to get back to work… just pushed my buttons so I figured I’d say something.. Now back to your regularly scheduled broadcast..

News that Bugs…

Ok… So I read two news stories yesterday that bugged me and had to spout a little:

Special prosecutor named in CIA probe
Ashcroft bows out of blown-cover investigation

I’ve been wondering for a while what ever happened to this story but could guess. This one was TOTALLY predictable and pisses me off to no end. WHY are they just doing this NOW? (rhetorical question) The answer as far as I can tell is because the administration doesn’t care about figuring out who is responsible because they’re crystal clear on who ordered the leak. Furthermore, if they’re forced to ‘figure out’ who is responsible then they need some time to let the story cool and to find a sacrificial lamb.
› Continue reading

Remodel Reality

Is it just me or are there WAY too many of those reality shows on the air these days where a group of people come in, kick out the people who live in a house, and make their house nice (or often nasty actually). Seem to be the Queer Eye / Trading spaces wave is getting way too crowded and the quality sucks.

Kevin and I watched some LAME show last night called Clean Sweep or some such thing - essentially a group of folks come in, force people to empty their house and sell or pitch a portion of their stuff and in the mean time people re-model their house. So yea - the house was a PIT when they got there (though who’s to say they didn’t run around and muss it up before hand) and it wasn’t a whole lot better when they left. They just had a new hodge podge of tacky ‘restored’ furniture (they took their old stuff painted it and put new drawer pulls on it) bright colors, and tacky art and called it done.

Just sayin.. enough is enough..

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming!

December 1, 2003 - World AIDS Day

In case you think you don’t need to think about HIV and AIDS any more read these:

• CDC Reports AIDS Cases Up for First Time in Decade
  
• Study Shows Alarming Spread of Drug-Resistant HIV
  
• HIV/AIDS Statistics, NIAID Fact Sheet
  

And then save these away for safe keeping

• World AIDS Day
  
• National Institutes of Health - World AIDS Day
  
• San Francisco AIDS Foundation
  
• The Body: World AIDS Day 2003
  
• AIDS Education Global Information System
  

This isn’t just about gay men. Its not about injection drug users. Its not about people in far off lands. Its not about people from the 80s. Its here, its now, its real, and it effects every one of us.

Be safe, be educated, and be heard…

Rev. Robinson

So the following report was posted by the AP News wire recently:

Excerpts From Report on Rev. Robinson

Based on this report the Church has cleared Rev. Robinson of all charges.. THANK GOD!!!
› Continue reading

Freedom of Speech

Just found this article over at Electric Venom. My favorite quote from that article is this:

Austin told the judge Monday he “wasn’t really thinking” when he created the Web site. “I’d be devastated if someone used this information to harm others,” he said.

Read on if you want to hear my rant - but I’ll spare the rest of you! › Continue reading

Couple of Quotes

In replying to a post over here I went digging for a quote that I’ve always loved and found two. I like them enough I had to share:

“The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny
individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”
- Ayn Rand

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
- Pastor Niemoller

AIDS Walk San Francisco

So its that time of year again. Sunday is the San Francisco AIDS Walk and Kevin and I will be walking again this year with his group at Gensler. For those of you who haven’t participated before it is an AMAZING experience. Thousands of people walking in Golden Gate Park on a beautiful day for a really good cause. It may be hard to get up for the walk but the minute you show up you forget all that… There are SO MANY people there and everyone is in a great mood and having fun. All along the walk there are things going on.. interesting people. entertainment. popsicles… And people cheering you on… So if anyone is in the area and wants to join We would LOVE to have people along for the ride.

But, whether you can join us or not, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE become a sponsor - even if all you can spare is a few bucks - thats better than nothing. The cause is every bit as important now as it has ever been. Everyone has their own reasons for sponsoring but here are a few of mine:

- HIV / AIDS Effects us all. Try and go through in your head the people you know in your life who are HIV+. I guarantee you’ll miss some..

- HIV / AIDS is NOT over. We have it under control and people are living with it but it is a LOT of work and we still haven’t found a cure or a vaccine.

- HIV / AIDS is NOT limited to the Gay Community. Some of the fastest growing population segments these days are women, people of color, and others.

- HIV / AIDS drug therapy is limited in scope - you can cycle through the various treatment options but once you’ve developed immunity to one you have to move to another and many people are running out of options.

- There is still work to do even within the Gay community. Far too many people are still seroconverting (becoming HIV+) every day.

So if you can spare anything please try and help… If you would like to sponsor kevin go here. Or you can sponsor someone else… Young Bradford is walking - you can sponsor him here… Or you can just go here and give directly. It doesn’t matter where the money goes - so long as someone who needs it gets it…

Hope to see you all sunday - and regardless I hope everyone can help out in whatever way they can… This effects us all…

Momma needs a VACATION

Ughhhh… Been one of those days where I felt like I was hyper productive yet I walked out the door thinking what the hell did I do with my day… I didn’t spend it playing (aside from the occasional web diversion) or chatting. I spent most of it slogging through bug reports and talking to folks about future product plans. Typical day as a software engineer. (parents - if your kids ever speak of doing this for a living tell them to be a fireman or an astronaut like every other kid on the block)…

Anyway … 6 pm rolled around and I had to head home cuz of my commute from HELL (45 minutes each direction - every day… living in SF rocks… working for apple Rocks.. why the hell Apple isn’t in San Francisco escapes me)… Felt like I should keep going but just didn’t have the energy.

Went to dinner with Kevin at Fuzio… Kind of our regular. they have good cocktails and the caramelized onion fuccia (sp?) is da bomb. On the way there there was a HUGE line at Ben and Jerry’s cuz, as it turns out, it was free scoop night there.. who’da thunk it… On the way home some random homeless freak in the ’stro called Kevin something strange - Kevin didn’t know who it was so it didn’t need to matter but it kinda bummed him out regardless..

Now, at 9:30 at night, i’m FINALLY decompressing… Reading pickle juice, Madame Fabulous, and of course Matt and Ray’s…