This is bad news, in my corner of the world. One of my top two favorite XM channels is slated for removal when the merger goes through. The two channels that I listen to the most are XM 82, The System and XM 175, MLB Home Plate. On July 24, 2007, XM and Sirius filed their planned post-merger programming lineup (PDF) with the FCC. One of the XM channels that is absent from this lineup is XM82, The System. I e-mailed Jon Zellner (Senior Vice President/Music Programming of XM) to ask him about this, and register my complaint about the proposed lineup. He confirmed that the proposed lineup was correct insofar as it excluded XM82. There are other reasons why I was hoping this merger would be denied, but that is by far the biggest reason. It's possible that the FCC could still deny the merger, but with the DOJ approving the merger it is very unlikely that the FCC will deny it.The Justice Department on Monday approved Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.'s proposed $5 billion buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., saying the deal was unlikely to hurt competition or consumers.
The deal was approved without conditions despite opposition from consumer groups and an intense lobbying campaign by the land-based radio industry.
The combination still requires approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which prohibited a merger when it granted satellite radio operating licenses in 1997.
Barack Obama / Jeremiah Wright
I have been aware of the recent controversy surrounding Barack Obama and his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. I had not paid any attention to it until today. I had not watched any of the Jeremiah Wright videos or read any of his comments that were causing such an uproar. In other words, I had no idea what the controversy was about. I didn't watch Obama's speech about race the other day, nor did I read the transcript. The one thing I had done prior to today was read a few articles yesterday; articles that were about people's reactions to Obama's speech.
Today I pulled up a couple of articles that talked about Jeremiah Wright's comments, and watched a few video clips on YouTube. After that, I watched Obama's speech in its entirety. Finally, I read a few more articles about people's reactions to the speech.
1) I thought the speech was excellent.
2) I'm disgusted with the level of outrage at Wright's comments.
3) I'm disappointed at the way people have responded/are responding to Obama's speech. I don't have time to go into detail right now, but I'm particularly disappointed at the reactions of white Americans, or at least those that are being reported by the mainstream media. (FYI: I am a 27-year old white male.)
Iraq war; five-year anniversary
"Anniversary" is typically thought of as a positive word. Calling this an anniversary is technically correct, but it feels very wrong. This is not positive.
My oft-promised post about the Iraq war will have to wait a little longer. After getting myself up to speed on the Wright/Obama controversy, I've decided that I need to write about this first. I think I have a somewhat unique perspective on it, as a white male married to a woman of mixed descent. I don't know if anybody will read what I have to say, or even care what I have to say, but I feel compelled to write about it anyway.
Idiopathic hypersomnia/narcolepsy
I've been feeling very discouraged/depressed lately, because my idiopathic hypersomnia has been getting worse (or the meds have been helping less) and I've been wrestling with severe tiredness much more frequently. It's hard to stay positive when you're this tired all the time. Anyway, the past couple of days I've been trying to find positives about this. It hasn't been easy, but I think I've found a couple. More on this at a later time.
Fahrenheit 451
I've been reading Fahrenheit 451 the last few nights, a few pages at at time. I have to fight myself to put the book down and go to bed. I would have stayed up all night and read it in one sitting, had I been able to stay awake and not had to get up early for work the next day. It is an incredible book, and I highly recommend it. I'll probably be talking about it more in the coming days.
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Tags: Barack Obama, depression, government, idiopathic hypersomnia, Iraq, Jeremiah Wright, narcolepsy, reading
Tags: Barack Obama, depression, government, idiopathic hypersomnia, Iraq, Jeremiah Wright, narcolepsy, reading
President Bush declared today that the United States is on the cusp of victory in the five-year-old war in Iraq, arguing that the recent troop buildup has reduced violence there and "opened the door to a major strategic victory in the war on terror."Full text of the President's speech is available at WhiteHouse.gov.
I haven't had time yet to read through the entire speech, but I will be reading it at some point before the day is over. I'll probably use it as a springboard for my promised-but-not-yet-delivered personal thoughts about the Iraq war as it stands today. I'll try to have them up within the next 24 hours.
Follow a group of friends as they try to survive their 20's! Tune in to Bravo and check your local listings for more details.Is this what our society has come to? Surviving your 20's is something that requires effort? Where was I when this news was passed down? I'm three-quarters of the way through my 20's; I've survived this far without any substantial effort (the effects of my narcolepsy/idiopathic hypersomnia don't count for this discussion). I haven't exactly thrived during these years, but I most definitely have survived.
Granted, I have lived and do live in a world that is presumably rather different from that of the typical person in their 20's. I'm not extremely social, I don't go to parties all the time, I don't get drunk all the time, I don't do drugs; my life mostly consists of being at work, being at home, and being in the car between work and home. Yes, it's a pretty boring life. And no, I'm not saying that most people in their 20's are always hanging out at parties, getting drunk, doing drugs, etc. Most probably don't do all of those things, but it's the only type of lifestyle I can think of to explain the "try to survive their 20's" line.
I know nothing about this quarterlife show. I hadn't even heard of it prior to seeing this in the Pepsi Xtras e-mail. I have no idea what the show is about, but if it's setup in such a way as to suggest that the characters in the show have to try to survive their 20's, then I'm fairly certain I will have no interest in watching it. (Not that I would watch it even if I was interested; I watch TV way too little to actually watch all of the shows that interest me. That's beside the point though.)
On a side note: another reason I wouldn't watch the show is because it's "quarterlife".
1) quarterlife is not a word.
2) If you insist on naming a show with a made-up word, fine. Could you at least use proper capitalization? It's a proper noun. Capitalize it. Quarterlife. There. See, that wasn't hard.
On Monday, March 17, 2008, the Georgia Supreme Court decided 4-3 to deny a new trial for Troy Anthony Davis, despite significant concerns regarding his innocence. Today's stunning decision by the Georgia Supreme Court to let Mr. Davis' death sentence stand means that the state of Georgia might soon execute a man who well may be innocent. Please take action today by calling on the Georgia Board of Pardon and Paroles to commute the death sentence for Troy Anthony Davis.
Learn more about Troy Davis and send a letter to the Georgia State Board of Pardons & Paroles at www.amnestyusa.org/troydavis.
The first thing I noticed was how incredibly small it was. The last time I was in a library that small was when I was a child or teenager - more than ten years ago. The second thing I noticed was that they have a sizable audio book collection. Thirdly, while meandering through the fiction section my eyes cames to rest on the book Catch-22, by Joseph Heller. This wouldn't have been significant, except that Catch-22 is a book I've been wanting to read for several years, and my meager efforts to locate a copy had been unsuccessful. (Probably because the only place I'd tried to obtain a copy is at the college library, whose lone copy was subsequently classified as "Lost" when I reported that I was unable to locate it on the shelves, and my later ILL request apparently vanished into thin air as I never received a response to it.) I don't have a current public library card, but the city library partners with the college library in that they accept current student ID cards as library cards in the same way that the college library does. I decided to see if they would also accept my alumni college library card as well. They did not.
This led to me requesting a new library card from them. The application process was quick and relatively painless. During the course of my interaction with the librarian, she inquired what my major had been, as I had previously told her I had graduated from the college the year before. I told her my major had been Computer Information Systems, and her response was wholly insignificant.
After she handed me my new library card and inquired if I had any questions (I did not), she handed me a copy of some of the library's policies, and then shared one piece of data about the library with me - namely, that they have a decently-sized video and DVD collection, and it's "different stuff than what is at the video store." I found that statement to be mildly curious, but thanked her for this information and returned to the shelves to retrieve the book that I wanted to check out. I didn't really think any more about this part of the conversation until I was in my car driving home a few minutes later.
As I thought about her words some more, they became even more curious. "Does she offer that information to all new library card holders?", I wondered. "Is their video collection a bragging point of the library? If so, what does that say about the popularity of reading in today's society? Nothing very positive; that's for sure." But then I recalled her query about my major, and started to wonder if those words were based on some assumptions she had made about me based on my age and major. I'm not typical college-age, but I'm still relatively young at age 27. Did she perhaps assume that most young computer nerds have no interest in books, but have a huge interest in movies?
I'll probably never know her reasons for offering that lone piece of information about the library, because I'm not the type to seek her out and ask her at some later date (although the idea has certainly crossed my mind). Regardless of what her exact reasons were, though, I still find her words to be rather discouraging and depressing. There's nothing wrong with a library having a good video collection, and nothing wrong with being proud of a good video collection. But shouldn't the video collection play second fiddle to the book collection? I mean, it is a library, is it not? Isn't there some aspect of their book collection that she could be proud of? Is she in fact more proud of their book collection, but she's resorted to only telling people about the video collection because that seems to be primarily what the majority of patrons are interested in? Or perhaps it's only young patrons that she offers this information to, since they specifically show little interest in books? At any rate, I still think it is sad.
You could argue that I'm overthinking such a tiny portion of our brief conversation, and you'd probably be right. But, it bothered me enough to occupy my thoughts on the drive home and then subsequently a few more times throughout the rest of this weekend. So, I decided if it was consuming my thoughts that much I might as well write about it.
The worst part of the story? Upon arriving home I realized that Catch-22 is a book I have read in the past few years, and it is not the book that I had been trying to locate for the last few years. I had gotten it confused with Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the actual book that I had been wanting to read for several years. Explaining how and why I got the books confused is more than what I want to delve into right now, but the good news is that today I discovered that the college library apparently eventually located their copy of this book, and I picked it up tonight after they re-opened their doors.
More details later when I have more time.
How do you find the words to explain something when all your brain and body want to do is sleep?
Perhaps more importantly, how do you explain what it feels like to never, ever be fully awake?
How do you explain why it takes ten minutes to write a post so short that it should have only taken one minute?
The Washington Post reports that Washington, D.C. police will soon be going door-to-door in certain areas of the city, requesting permission from residents to search their home for guns and drugs. In return for consenting to the search, people will be given amnesty for any illegal guns or drugs that turn up during the search.
The program is called the Safe Homes Initiative, and is targeted at areas of the city hit hard by violence.
Under the deal, police target areas hit by violence and seek adults who let them search their homes for guns, with no risk of arrest. The offer also applies to drugs that turn up during the searches, police said.
...
Residents who agree to the searches will be asked to sign consent forms. If guns are found, they will be tested to determine whether they were used in crimes. If the results are positive, police will launch investigations, which could lead to charges.
I applaud the police department's desire to reduce gun violence; that is certainly a worthy goal. However, I believe that this plan is a very bad idea. This is yet another step on the slippery road to losing all of our freedoms.
First and foremost, there's the not-so-small matter of the Bill of Rights.
Amendment IVThe searches carried out under the Safe Homes Initiative will be warrant-less searches. I would also argue that they are unreasonable. Why are they unreasonable? Because a person's right to the privacy of their home trumps the government's desire to locate and confiscate illegal items. The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America is one of the basic building blocks that this country is built upon, and this program tosses it right out the window and then tramples all over it.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
"But wait," you say, "the searches are optional - a person can refuse the police's request." Well, yes, they can. But who's to say that the police won't make note of those houses refusing their requests, and then use that list at a later date to keep a closer eye on certain people or houses, or otherwise cause adverse affects on the people that refused the searches. "Give me a break; the police wouldn't do that!" We'd like to think that. But we have no way of knowing. In case you hadn't noticed, corruption isn't exactly unheard of in government offices and police departments these days.
And then what about all of the people who do consent to the searches? Don't you think it is likely that some people will feel pressured or coerced into giving their consent? Sad as it may be, not everyone has the gumption to deny a police request that they want to deny. And there are probably some people that won't even realize that they have the right to deny the search.
Frankly, this plan is an insult to the citizens of Washington, D.C., and I wish they would protest this plan in outrage, and band together to deny every single search request. I read somewhere - possibly in the above-linked Washington Post article, possibly elsewhere - that this plan is aimed at parents who suspect their children may possess guns or drugs. Well, how does this idea sound? If you suspect your kids are in possession of guns or drugs - search your house yourself. Don't let the police in to do it for you. If you find guns or drugs in your house and don't know what to do at that point, then call the police at that point if you feel comfortable with reporting it to them - but make sure you understand the potential ramifications before making the call.
It all boils down to this: the police should not be searching your home - EVER - without a warrant. And they shouldn't be asking to search your home without a warrant either.
Ok, let's cut to the chase. This is the last Iraq-war-related pre-war post from my old blog. I posted it on 17 Mar 2003, two days before the United States of America invaded Iraq. I was 22 years old at the time, and not too long prior to this I had a naïve and hopeful outlook on life. That naiveness was quickly being replaced with great cynicism and pessimism. The buildup to the Iraq war was far from the only reason for the drastic change in my outlook, but it was certainly a significant part of the overall reason. Anyway, enough intro, here's the post.
You can probably tell by now that I was very strongly against the Iraq war. If you're interested at all in what I think about it now, check back in a few days. At least some of my current thoughts about it will be up within a week, at most.War is imminent. Others have been saying it for quite some time now – days, weeks, even months. Time has passed and it has not happened. War has not yet begun in earnest. For the first time since this whole mess began I can now honestly say that I believe we are on the brink of war with Iraq.
War. How a single three-letter word can invoke so many emotions, fears, hopes, and ideas is beyond me. Yet, it does. A complete and thorough understanding of what war is, does, could be, will be, and should be is beyond even the best of us. We all strive, each in our own way and to varying degrees, to arrive at an understanding of what war means to us as an individual and as part of a larger circle, that circle usually being family. For some this may be nothing more than watching the nightly news and believing whatever it is that they may be reporting and the potential consequences that they also report. For others, in addition to watching the mainstream media, this may also mean reaching out across the globe to all parts of the world and people from all walks of life to obtain information, then struggling to somehow iron out the inconsistencies that are sure to arise, questioning the information that comes from many sources along with the motives for reporting it, and eventually deciding what has enough substance to believe and what should be discarded. For some who take the latter route, it is bound to challenge the very core of their beliefs and ideals. This, in turn, will cause minor changes or even fundamental changes in the beliefs of an even smaller set of people. Then, of course, there is the vast majority who take a path somewhere in between the two extremes listed above.
Is there any one approach that is the right approach? Perhaps not. The issue of right and wrong in this case is a highly subjective issue dependent on the individual involved. Although I do personally believe that an investigation and review of any issue that ends up challenging your beliefs has a lot going for it. Unfortunately, the realities of life mean that we cannot take that route for all issues, most issues, or for some, any issues at all.
Why am I saying all of this? What is the point? I don’t really know. I guess I just wanted to jot down some of my thoughts as our nation stands on this precipice. That, and share them with others just in case anyone happens to be interested in them.
Perhaps a person’s views of a war are dependent on the level of research they do into the matter. Or perhaps they are totally irrelevant, having no consequence whatsoever on the other. I suspect that the answer lies somewhere in between.As we stand here poised to strike, a torrential flood of emotions is pouring forth from my inner depths, some of them justified, some perhaps not.
Anger. Anger that my government is about to preemptively attack another country. Anger that my government did not, judging from the available signs, seriously consider the legitimate, viable alternatives that were present. Anger that my government’s actions are spawning many more terrorist recruits than normal. Anger that my government’s actions are alienating us from the rest of the world and destroying an important international system that we ourselves have helped to build. Anger at the dictator who could have helped prevent this but did not.
Fear. I must profess to feeling a small amount of fear in regards to what may happen as a direct or indirect result of war. Our civil liberties have already been trampled upon and I fear that it will only grow worse. Fear that Hussein, al Qaida, North Korea, or some other country or group will unleash an attack – conventional or otherwise – against us. Perhaps most of all, fear of the unknown.
Joy. Joy for the oppressed Iraqi people who will no longer live under an oppressive regime – if all goes according to plan. Joy for the Iraqi’s imprisoned and tortured who will be freed – if we find them.
Pain and hurt. Pain for the innocent people that are sure to die as a result of our actions, whether directly or indirectly. Pain for our soldiers who will suffer physically, mentally, and emotionally because of this war. Hurt because I, in many ways, feel betrayed by a country that I love.
Hope. Hope for a better future for all involved.
Faith. Faith that somehow, someway, God will work through all of this and the end result – if there ever is one – will somehow be a good one.
But even more so than all the others, I feel a great sense of sadness. Sadness that we are actually doing this. Sadness that I am powerless to do anything about it. Sadness because of all of the innocent people who will die. Sadness for those whose lives will be negatively affected in a very profound way because of this. Sadness because I was naïve enough to expect more from my country and I was let down. Sadness for all those who are still naïve about what happens “behind the scenes” because most will eventually find out and then wish they never had. Sadness and an occasional wish to be able to return to that naïve state. I have forgotten what it is like. It must be nice. I can’t go back though, even if I want to (which I don’t).
Just heard the news. 48 hours for Hussein to leave the country. It will not happen. We’ll be at war within the next week. I find it doubtful that we’ll attack as soon as the 48 hours is up. I think we’ll wait a little bit to make him wonder when it will happen. But it will happen within days.
I have never disputed the point that Saddam Hussein is a dangerous man with dangerous weapons. Never. I once disputed the possibility of him having WMDs, but not for all that long and I still acknowledged that he had dangerous weapons. I have never once said that it would be a good thing for him to stay in power. It isn’t.
Too many people apparently see this situation as good choice vs. bad choice. That’s not what it is. This is a bad choice vs. bad choice situation. We’re dealing with two – or more – evils here and ideally we would choose the lesser of those two evils.
A war against Iraq will – most likely – succeed in removing Saddam Hussein from power assuming that is our objective, which we have been told it is. That is all fine and good. We remove Saddam Hussein from power, the evil dictator is no more, and – voilà – suddenly everything in Iraq and the rest of the world is fine and good. Uh-uh. It doesn’t work that way. If it did then I would support the war against Iraq. Do some digging into what the other, rarely-mentioned consequences are of this war and you’ll see what I mean.
I’m starting to just reiterate many of the things I’ve said in the past so I’ll stop now.
My biggest question now is no longer “Is war preventable?”, but instead “What is my place in all of this?” now that war is going to start.
I've accepted that I have narcolepsy (or idiopathic hypersomnia, whichever it may be); that's not the problem. The problem is that I think I can take my drugs every day and then live like nothing was wrong with me - which roughly translates into typically not getting enough sleep for a normal person, let alone a person with narcolepsy. I'll routinely go to bed at midnight or later - lately it's been later more often that not - then get up at 6 or 6:30 in the morning. I'm averaging probably around 5 or 5.5 hours of sleep per night. I really feel like it's been catching up to me lately.
I take two different medications to keep me awake enough to work, drive, etc. One is generic Ritalin; the other is essentially the same thing but in an extended release version. Since I started taking these particular medications my prescriptions have been to take 3 of each per day - spread throughout the day, not all at once. For quite some time I didn't take the full dose of both drugs each day. Many days I could get by on just 2 of each pill. Some days I would need 2 of one and 3 of the other. Fairly recently I got to where I had to take all 3 of each pill to make it through the day/evening. Very recently there have been days where I've had to exceed my dosage - 4 pills of one drug, 3 of the other - if not 4 of both.
I know that these medications are of the type that your body grows accustomed to over time, meaning that the effects of a particular dosage will diminish over time as your body gets used to it. I've known that for a long time, and it worries me when I allow myself to think about the long-term effects of that. I think it's possible that this effect might be partially responsible for the increased dosage I've had to take recently. But I don't believe it's fully responsible. The increase in dosage required seems a little too sudden for that to be the only explanation.
Then there's the aspect of the side-effects of these medications. More on that in later posts, but let's just say that feeling somewhat awake comes with a price. So taking a higher dosage of the drugs in one day also increases the negative side effects. Great fun.
So why do I keep running on too little sleep? Because I'm in denial about the fact that, even with my medications, I still need to adjust my living habits. Instead of being a responsible adult and taking myself to bed when I need to, I'll convince myself that it's okay to stay up for awhile longer - even if there's nothing important that I have to do. Some nights recently this has resulted in me attempting to use the computer when I'm minimally awake, wobbling in and out of sleep, and feeling like I've been drugged, only to wake up some time later slumped over the keyboard having accomplished absolutely nothing on the computer.
I like to think that I'm a mature adult, but inside I know I'm far from it. From matters like these, to other areas of my life where I am significantly lacking in responsibility, to the problems in my marriage, and so much more - I'm a poor excuse for a mature, responsible adult.
Admitting that you have a problem is half the battle, or so they say. Or is it 3/4 of the battle? I don't know. Whatever it is, it doesn't apply to me. I know what most of my problems are. That's the easy part for me. The hard part is actually motivating myself to follow through on changing what I need to change to resolve those problems.
I'm hoping that forcing myself to talk about some of these problems here, even if nobody but myself reads this, will help me in motivating myself to fix them. Life is too short to keep dealing with the same problems all the time.
