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March 18, 2005

Quick Links

Posted by Bill

*** Pictures from Iraq's history.

(Via BA)

*** The outrageous peril of failing to fill out forms:

Vernon Baker battled Nazis to win the Medal of Honor. Now, at 85, he's battling red tape.
Baker, purportedly the only living black Medal of Honor winner from World War II, needed emergency surgery in September to remove a malignant tumor from his brain.

Healthy for much of his life, the Idaho resident had overlooked the need to enroll for Veterans Affairs and Medicare benefits. When his medical bills arrived, Baker and his wife were suprised to learn the government did not intend to help pay them.

*** Is your company's internet security software playing political favorites?

Word is out that Websense blocks foxnews.com because it's categorized as an "Advocacy Group". Meanwhile, CNN, MSNBC, CBS News, ABC News, and other MSM sites are not blocked by the enterprise security filtering software (for the exception of some sports content).

UPDATE: Commenter dirtdart adds: "No, Websense does not block Fox News. We have it and I just checked to make sure."

*** First the new Star Wars was supposed to be dark and scary, now it's "Titanic in space?!" I suppose that the last movie's painfully wooden love scenes between Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen were something to be feared ...

*** INDC's American Apocalypse Advice: Learn Mandarin Chinese (or at least "welcome to our friendly land, good and noble lord"), stock up on DVD's, canned goods, bullets and gold.

Posted by Bill at March 18, 2005 08:00 AM | TrackBack (5)

Comments

No, Websense does not block Fox News. We have it and I just checked to make sure.

Posted by: dirtdart at March 18, 2005 12:45 PM

I thought it was robots who were going to be our overlords. And I had just learned all the various motor oils in order to serve as a sommelier (aka the wine guy).

Posted by: rbj at March 18, 2005 03:27 PM

Heh.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at March 18, 2005 03:44 PM

Re: Vernon Baker, I have left a message for his neighbor who is organizing the fund-raiser and will see if I can get some account information for people to send contributions to defray his medical expenses.

Posted by: Pat Curley at March 18, 2005 04:42 PM

Re: George Lucas

Don't worry. He also said the first two movies would be good and they weren't. Lucas is like France; we can safely assume that his various don't represent actual fact. Thus, if he says "tearjerker," I suspect what we'll get something completely different.

Unless he actually gives Natalie Portman speaking lines, in which case the movie will suck eggs regardless of how cool anything else in the movie is.

Posted by: ccwbass at March 18, 2005 08:35 PM

I don't know about you, but when I hear the phrase "Revenge of the Sith", it doesn't exactly evoke the notion of a "tearjerker". Maybe he should have called it "The Force Whisperer" or "While You Were Frozen in Carbonite".

Posted by: dorkafork at March 18, 2005 11:22 PM

dirtdart: Just because Websense doesn't block Fox News at your company, doesn't mean that there isn't a problem. We use similiar software (I am an IT Manager) and I would think that what Websense does is to *categorize* certain sites; then the IT Manager selects which categories to block. At your co, the ITM probably hasn't blocked that category. The ridiculous thing here is that they seriously discriminated against Fox.

Posted by: Hans Mast at March 21, 2005 11:28 AM

If anybody is interested in helping out Vernon Baker, I have the information on my blog about the fund that his neighbor has set up to defray his medical expenses.

Posted by: Pat Curley at March 21, 2005 06:33 PM

Actually, rather than link-whore on this one, here's the info:

Checks should be made payable to the Vernon Baker Medical Fund and mailed to:

Marilyn Fletcher
1731 Fletcher Rd
Saint Maries, ID 83861-9383

Posted by: Pat Curley at March 21, 2005 07:34 PM