Yes, I had a scary moment last night. The case for the linux computer my nephew Greg and I put together a few weeks ago – I’m using the computer initially for writing my book – came with a little board with eight LEDs that dance in joy when the computer starts. Those wires shorted, melting their insulation and making me realize I don’t yet have a backup routine for the computer.

After disconnecting the melted wires and cracking a window in my home office, all is well.

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Elizabeth Holtzman, who was on the House Judiciary Committee during Nixon’s impeachment — ah, memories! — systematically goes through the reasons to impeach Bush now. A snippet:

At the time, I hoped that our committee’s work would send a strong signal to future Presidents that they had to obey the rule of law. I was wrong.

Like many others, I have been deeply troubled by Bush’s breathtaking scorn for our international treaty obligations under the United Nations Charter and the Geneva Conventions. I have also been disturbed by the torture scandals and the violations of US criminal laws at the highest levels of our government they may entail, something I have written about before.

These concerns have been compounded by growing evidence that the President deliberately misled the country into the war in Iraq. But it wasn’t until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country’s laws — that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate.

In addition to his deserving it, we ought to impeach Bush just to let history know that we took his abuses seriously. (Here’s a scenario for how it might happen.)

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Clay’s course

The syllabus for Clay’s course on “Social Facts” wants to make me turn my baseball cap backwards and re-enrol as an undergrad. Sounds fantastic. [Tags: clayShirky]

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Do you have a Pelouze mechanical postal scale at home that has a display that looks like this?

Note that mine is marked Pelouze Model X2.

If you click here, you’ll get a pretty large jpg (100K) you can cut out and tape over your old scale to update it for the new postal rates taking effect on Monday. Each strip should be exactly 4″ when you print it out.

Note: Since this required me adding in increments or $0.24, it is undoubtedly error-riddled. If so, could you please let me know so I can fix it? Thanks. [Tags: postalrates stamps]

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My wife and I have always found the Russell-Moore-Apple sketch from “BehindBeyond the Fringe” very funny, although we’ve failed to convince our 15 year old that we’re right about that.

Here’s an mp3 of the original performance so you can decide for yourself.

[Tags: humor comedy BertrandRussell GEMoore philosophy]

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Rageboy‘s incredible list of NewAge++ titles has made it to the top of Amazon’s “So You’d Like to…” lists.

Meanwhile, AKMA responds on his blog to the fascinating comment thread attached to my brief posting about Daniel Dennett. AKMA writes beautifully, starting with the title of his post: On Certainty of Others’ Folly [Tags: RageBoy akma newage spirituality amazon]

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Islamicate argues interestingly that CS Lewis’ tale works better as a Muslim allegory than as a Christian one.

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I just got a call from Domain Registry Support asking me to confirm the contact information for a domain I recently transferred from one registrar to another (neither of whom is DRS). When I refused to confirm anything, the fellow asked me to call 800 591 7398.

This smells a lot like a registry transfer scam. Anyone know for sure? [Tags: registrars scam DomainRegistrySupport]

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My home town is looking to provide free wifi in public spaces and low-cost wifi in private spaces.

Excellent! [Tags: wifi MuniWifi brookline]

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The Maple Tree

The maple tree that night
without a wind or rain
let go its leaves
because its time had come.
Brown veined, spotted,
like old hands, fluttering in blessing,
they fell upon my head
and shoulders, and then
down to the quiet at my feet.
I stood, and stood
until the tree was bare
and have told no one
but you that I was there.

—Eugene McCarthy, 1916-2005 [source]

I went through every phone book in Africa, and I didn’t find one goddamned Pryor!

— Richard Pryor (1940-2005) [source]

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