Spammers, Stickers, Shirts

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Spamhuntress points to a Guardian story about an unapologetic referrer spammer. The last quote is absolutely precious:

“Why would it be unethical, any more than it is unethical to wear a highly visible company logo on a piece of clothing?”

My response is in the comments:

“Someone tell him to make highly visible red and pink stickers which say TEXAS HOLDEM POKER PHENTERMINE VIAGRA MILF RAPE SEX, then walk around Oslo, randomly slapping those stickers onto people’s clothing without permission, then claim that it’s all perfectly ethical when the mob comes with pitchforks and tazers.”

…Because that’s what referrer and weblog spam is more analogous to. Joe at Spam Chongqing has the shirt.

(By the way, I refuse to use the word splog, any more than I refuse to use words like podcasting, folksonomy, or blog. Okay?)

Update: This entry is now a regular target for revenge spam attacks, which is great, because each spam comes with a bunch of URLs and an IP, all data which help me build a distributed blacklist. At the same time, I regularly delete the spam after using the information supplied, so they get no search engine value out of it. (Not that they get anything anyway, since rel=nofollow has been implemented on my comments.) Just goes to show, spamming might make money, but money can’t buy morals. Or brains.

Relief Comes to New Orleans

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Massive relief is finally arriving in New Orleans. It’s been four days. Government was just far too slow to respond, both locally and federally, and I’m sorely disappointed at the delayed deer-in-headlights reaction we’ve been seeing from FEMA, Homeland Security, and President Bush. It took two days just to get the President to a token Air Force One flyover, while DHS Chief Chertoff denied reports of chaos, State Secretary Rice shopped for shoes and watched Broadway plays, and FEMA Chief Brown implicitly blamed the victims.

To those who say it’s the non-evacuees’ fault for not getting out, remember that NOLA isn’t a wealthy town where everyone has an SUV, ATM card, and family in other cities. Accordion Guy has several sobering questions for those of us who claim we would respond differently in such a situation: “Are we who weren’t in Katrina’s path laughing at the speck in others’ eyes while ignoring the log in our own?” I think what we’re seeing is not just a discrepancy between what government knows about a situation and what’s really going on, but a real disconnect in the way government understands the plight of the urban poor in America.

But enough of politics; I’m glad that relief has come. As for the lawless, the looters, the gangs who roam flooded streets firing their stolen Walmart guns at rescue workers and preying on tourists and helpess New Orleaners, they represent the absolute worst side of humanity that can come out of a disaster, and I hope the National Guard repays them bullet for bullet.

Update: “The cavalry is and will continue to arrive,” said Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, commander of the National Guard. “Is and will continue…” Um, what?

Hurricane Katrina Aftermath Update

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In the News:

In Weblogs:

In Aerial and Satellite Imagery:

Hurricane Katrina’s Aftermath

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Check out the National Doppler Radar Loop and the Geostationary Satellite Northwest Atlantic Visible Loop to watch the remnants of Hurricane Katrina heading north, now a mere tropical depression.

We thought it would be a disaster, then we thought it was oversensationalized media hype, and after a bit of a delay, it turned out to be a disaster after all. Levees have broken, pumps and sandbags have failed, New Orleans is flooded, the water is rising, looters run rampant, martial law has been declared, and the city is being completely evacuated. The water will not stop rising until it is at level with Lake Pontchartrain.

Here in DC, all is quiet but for a strong wind and a few isolated tornado warnings. More weblog entries on the aftermath:

On Tachmonites

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Update: “Why the Westboro Baptist Church is a Scam” — interesting insight from a SomethingAwful Forums thread, surmising that the “Church” is actually a litigatory racket whose modus operandi is provocation aimed at collecting income from free speech settlements.

Most people assume that Fred Phelps (of Westboro Baptist Church/”God Hates Fags” infamy) is an over-zealous anti-gay Baptist, but it looks more like he and his kin are in the process of starting a homegrown cult. They’re not “Christians” or “Baptists”; apparently they refer to themselves as “Tachmonites.” So Phelps is the “last prophet” with power over his followers’ souls, and the members of his church believe that they are essentially God on Earth, with sole authority to condemn and forgive others. They seem to be developing their own invective-filled scriptural addenda derived from references to homosexuality in the Bible, complete with epistles soundly insulting any who write to them. (No wimpy gay sola fide or sola scriptura for these true chosen ones of God, eh?)

For more info, Wikipedia has an entry on Writings from Westboro, and of course on Westboro Baptist Church itself. Funny part is, the more that they show the standard trappings of a spinoff cult, the less inflammatory I find them, since it becomes much easier to dismiss them as kooks. (Not that it wasn’t already easy to begin with.)

(Links found via rhesagirl.)

Washingtonians can see the Phelps spectacle for themselves when he comes to DC on September 11th to protest the “America Supports You” Freedom Walk. (Not that there’s much to see — some old guy with his folks carrying “God hates fags” signs and acting weird.)

Translation Note: The word “Tachmonites” is derived from an alternate transliteration of the proper name “Hachmoni” or “Hachmonite” mentioned in 1 Chronicles 11:11 and 27:32, also spelled “Tahchemonite” in 2 Sam 23:8.

Found Tables

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Found: Green Work Desk Found: Coffee Table Found: White and Yellow Work Desk Found: Plant Stand Found: Typewriter Stand

Above: a bunch of tables I found by the building dumpster last month. People throw out some of the most amazing things. See that last one? It’s a vintage typewriter stand from Metalstand, an old Philadelphia furniture company which used to manufacture aluminum furniture in the 1950s. This piece might just be that old, judging from the layers of dust I wiped off it. I don’t use typewriters anymore, of course, but the stand makes a great end table.

That, and the coffee table, now sit around the gCouch, forming my living “room.” The white/yellow work table has replaced the old, creaky, cockroach-ridden oak table which served as my kitchen extension, while the plant stand is now a printer-and-media stand in my work area. I put the green work desk up for sale on Craigslist, but no one really wanted it, so it’s just extending my dining table right now.

So check out the dumpster every once in a while. One man’s trash is another man’s free apartment furniture — after a thorough spraying, dusting, and wiping down, of course.

Di Ka Nag-iisa + 22

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I’m over a week late for this, but August 21st was the twenty-second anniversary of the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, the Filipino politician who stood up to the Marcos dictatorship and faced death in his imprisonment by Marcos and on his return from exile, because he believed that “the Filipino is worth dying for.” Ninoy’s assassination as he arrived in Manila in 1983 would fan the flames of the People Power Revolution which ousted Marcos in 1986, placing his wife, Cory Aquino, in the presidency.

(Sadly, as I have said before, the Philippines has yet to prove itself truly worthy of Ninoy’s sacrifice.)

Deebeedee recently visited Ninoy’s cell, where he (Ninoy, not Deebeedee) was imprisoned, after Marcos declared Martial Law and used his powers to clamp down on his critics and political enemies. Country Studies has a page on Ninoy Aquino and People Power in its Philippines section.

Hurricane Katrina Heads for New Orleans

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Update, 8/30/2005: What they feared would happen came true a day late: levees have broken and water is rising. Large portions of New Orleans are underwater and getting worse. The mayor has ordered a mass evacuation of the entire city.

Update on Katrina’s aftermath here.

Update, 8/28/2005: Katrina has weakened to a Category 4 and veered slightly east, sparing NOLA a direct hit. This will still be a catastrophic storm, but no longer the ultimate doomsday scenario that was previously predicted. New Orleans is spared becoming New Atlantis for now, hopefully.

Weather news from the South is looking pretty scary: Hurricane Katrina, plowing north as it is fed by warm Gulf waters, is now a Category 5, aimed straight at New Orleans. Large parts of the city and surrounding areas are several feet below sea level, protected from flooding only by levees which would be ineffectual against the massive storm surge of a Category 5 hurricane. Current predictions have Katrina hitting New Orleans just after high tide, with surge submerging some places as deep as 28 feet. The whole city is being evacuated. All of you New Orleaners, I hope you’re getting out okay, and take care. You have our prayers from here up North.

Category 5 is no joke. (That’s on the Saffir Simpson Scale, and is comparable to Signal #4 on the Philippine Signal Scale.)

The hurricane may exact an economic and environmental toll as well as a human one: New Orleans is a major port, and that area is responsible for a significant portion of our oil import and production. Refineries and plants may spike the floodwaters with all sorts of toxic chemicals, not to mention the danger of floating fire ant balls.

More links: