So after a long afternoon, Jen and I had thought we were going to the Grove. Nope, we headed back to Pasadena, and hit Mijares for an early dinner and promptly crashed.
Ok, here comes the rant.
Article III is actually very specific in many ways. the specific use of the line "outrages upon human dignity" comes in art 3 section c. But that is by no means the only limitation. I think the one of the most compelling pieces of the document comes in art 13.
"Art 13. Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention. In particular, no prisoner of war may be subjected to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind which are not justified by the medical, dental or hospital treatment of the prisoner concerned and carried out in his interest. Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity. Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited.But that again is not the only point at which torture is outlined.
in art 17...
No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind.Now i'm just going to be clear on this one. I'M NOT A LEGAL EXPERT! But in a couple minutes of reading, i can say without a doubt this document is NOT VAGUE. To say otherwise is either an outright lie, or just an uninformed blunder.
But don't take my word for it.
The document has nothing but good intentions to ensure the honest treatment of all human beings.
I think this is going to lead me to be doing a little more timelapse this weekend.
on startmovie
housekeepingyouwantmeflufpillow
end
on housekeepingyouwantmeflufpillow
--all the init scripts go here
end
Ok, i guess i should start with the "sky is falling news". Every news outlet on the planet has been talking about the fact that the white house has announced a new Space Policy. Well after reading 3 articles about it I still had not found any substance at all about the Policy itself. So i went to digging. I found the actual policy on the website for the Office of Scenece and Technology Policy (Executive Office of the President). The new policy can be found here (pdf). It superseeds the older policy that was set up under the Clinton Administration in 1996( which can be found here (html).
I suggest reading both and making your own decision.
I just want to know what authority these policies hold. Its obvious that the White House is making a clear paper trail so when they do reveal what their plans are for some military ops in space they have something to point to. I'm just wondering what weight this new policy has over the Treaties and Domestic laws that are already in place. Maybe that's a little more reading that should be done.
The one piece of this policy that makes their agenda all too clear...
"The United States will oppose the development of new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space. Proposed arms control agreements or restrictions must not impair the rights of the United States to conduct research, development, testing, and operations or other activities in space for U.S. national interests;"
this is a Science and Technology Document right? Sure sounds like something that would come out of the DOD, or Dept of Homeland Security.
i'm feeling sick to my stomach.
the part has not come in and its back ordered. We don't know when it will be in. Apple doens't really give us a in stock measurement, so we don't know whats what. we'll call you when we know more.
ok, so i guess i'm just screwed. Well i'm glad this is the first time i've had to take a computer in for a service since my Mac SE.
But i do remember a couple dads that were very serious about boy scouts. There was one in particular that had a boy scout manual from his own father's era. Every time one of us would complain about the requirements for rank or a merit badge, he usually pull the old manual out. He'd proceed to look up the "old" requirements for the same rank or badge, and then recite them to us. We'd promptly shut the fuck up, cause we were shocked that they had to work so hard for the stupid badge.
I heard today that the MPAA is using its almighty power to create a new Boy Scout Merit Badge to teach the evils of Piracy. Some of the proposed requirements focus on visiting a working motion picture studio and seeing how things work. This should make scouts aware of all the people that are being harmed by piracy.
AND here's the funny part. The merit badge is said to look like a big fuckin circle C. Now here comes the rant...
There already is a merit badge to teach scouts about cinematography. Holy shit, you'll never guess whats its called...
CINEMATOGRAPHY! Isn't that unbelievable?
If you want to promote film making, then you should really promote the fundamentals of the cinematography badge. The requirements of this badge are a fuckin joke. It really needs to be made into a badge that you've gotta work for. IMHO the cinematography badge is on about the level of basketry. (if you don't know what i mean, ask somebody who was a boy scout) It really could use some help from the MPAA to make it a little more meaningful. ALSO, if you want to make a entire badge that focuses on piracy, dont you think it should look like a fuckin pirate flag? I mean cmon, there were a couple badges that i honesly didn't even want to put on my sash cause they looked so fuckin stupid. Now the MPAA wants to put a fuckin copyright sign on uniforms. FFS.
BTW the material they're trying to add to the merit badge curriculum (if you want to call it that) is already in a number of merit badges. Specifically the LAW merit badge. Check out requirement 11b and 11c.
that was disorganized and just came out all over the place. I don't think i had a point really other than i think using Merit Badges to teach MPAA Beliefs should really be avoided. But then again, i'm sure the MPAA is giving the Boy Scouts a lot of money. Well we'll have to forgive them. We always forgive people with lots of money.
Our fearless leader has signed the Secure Fence Act of 2006!!! Now I won't question the cost and the motivation, but i do have one concern. "W" in his announcement stated a couple things...
"Also, thousands of beds will be added at detention facilities for illegal immigrants, so Border Patrol agents can end "catch-and-release at our southern border"
AND
[Since W has been in office] "the United States has caught and deported more than 6 million people entering the country illegally"
Now if both of these statements are the truth... then we're going to end catch-and-release AND we're looking ar about 1 Million people a year coming across the border. SO... then Bush's intentions are to capture and hold about 1 million people each year? Hmmmmm. This sounds like a good plan. Don't you think? Of course i might just be stupid.
The rest of the day i cleaned up flash files for HellBoy Animated and pushed the fixes live. David had called me Thursday with some questions, but i really dug in and broke all the flash into pieces on Saturday.
That night we headed to la Boheme for Valarie's birthday party. Food was great, and everybody drank too much. I passed my camera off to Justin most of the night. I was drinking too much, and i'm an asshole with a camera when i'm drunk. So i got rid of it. I think Justin's only 14, but he took great pictures. So i walked out of the place with about 200 pictures and most of the ones at the end i don't remember.
We took David B home after the party, and i do remember popping in Serenity and watching half of the movie before passing out. I woke up Sunday hungover, and Jen cooked breakfast for me and her brother. The rest of the day was spent just screwing around. Finally a day to do nothing.
