Google today announced plans to block Blog Comment Spam, on the theory that if they don’t give blog spam any visibility, if there is no value in spamming blogs, the practice will stop. Horay for Google!!!
Fundamental Christian Charity?
News from UFMCC Headquarters …
January 7, 2005
Metropolitan Community Church’s relief efforts on behalf of victims of the tsunami were saluted on Al Franken’s national (US) radio talk show, The Al Franken Show.
Franken pointed out that, as of earlier this week, none of the “religious self-righteous websites” (his words) even mentioned the tsunami disaster (Christian Coalition, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, etc — “while the United Church of Christ, Metropolitan Community Churches, and some reformed Jewish groups all had the disaster and disaster relief prominently displayed on their websites…”
The Al Franken Show is carried live on Air America Network on both Sirius and XM satellite radio, and on more than 50 radio stations across the U.S. Franken, a former star of Saturday Night Live, is the author of several books, including the New York Times #1 bestseller “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.”
Want to send some help to the survivors of the Tsunami?
I recommend you use Charity Navigator and
The Better Business Bureau National Information System
to help evaluate what charities to give to, based on ranking and percentage of donated money that is used for administration vs. money that is used for the program itself.
Merry Christmas .. cough cough hack hack …
Its Christmas – what a wonderful relief from work!
I’m still struggling with this flu bug that nipped me last week – started with a nasty sore through and achy weakness, then shifted to a raspy unproductive cough with a constant nasal drip, then a fever … and now, it may actually be fading away!
We had a big deal going at work for the last month or so – the final stages of turning our website into a Portal – and the actual launch on Dec 20th. Of course, that came in the middle of the scheduled office party. But it went through without a flaw and everyone celebrated. Tho I didn’t feel much like celebration with this flug bug … ick!
Tsunami Relief
Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres
P.O. Box 2247
New York, NY 10116-2247
(888) 392-0392
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org
Or, just go to the Apple website at http://www.apple.com/give/ and donate through one of the Charities they have linked to – or, you can even donate through the Itunes Music Store!
Charity in the Wake of the Tsunami
Revised Jan 4th, 2005 by Heather
the problem I reported Dec 29th with Domain Routing for Doctors Without Borders has apparently been fixed!
Blog Spammers are dirtballs
I have recently turned off UNREGISTERED comments to this site due to abuse by Comment Spammers.
Many weblogs have been hit by a plague of spammers trying to post “Spam comments”, that is, comments that are mostly links to sites offering goods and services that no one here is interested in. Comments to this website do not get seen by the public until I approve them, and frankly, I’m never going to approve so-called comments that are just full of links to casinos, poker-sites and various “medical” vendors.
The Tragedy of Today’s Gays
Copied from RuPaul’s weblog
Bill Moyers Speech (quoted in the Larry Kramer speech above)
These remarks were made by Bill Moyers on receiving an award at the
7th Annual Walter Cronkite Faith & Freedom Award Gala,
October 20, 2004 at the Palace Hotel in New York city.
17th World AIDS Day
Dec 1st is traditionally World Aids Day. May I make a gentle suggestion that today would be a great day to make a donation to AmFAR
(the American Foundation for AIDS Research – a non-profit). Or make a donation to AEGIS – the AIDS Education Global Information System. Sister Mary Elizabeth has been doing this good work for many years and can always use a bit of help!
CGT Live at Jammin Java
Jammin’ Java, Vienna, Virginia Nov. 10, 2004 Photo Credit: Hideyo Moriya
What a great night!
Last week Emma noticed that the California Guitar Trio were scheduled to play at Jammin’ Java, a local coffeehouse (in Vienna, VA) on Nov 10th. We don’t usually do weeknight concerts as I get up for work at 5am, but with the Veterans Day holiday on Nov 11th, it was very possible. I bought tickets online, and we were in a short line at 7PM.
The show started around 7:40 with Bert Lam playing a number of classical pieces (I believe Bach – but I ccouldn’t tell you the names). Gorgeous stuff beautifully played.
Next up was Tom Griesgraber, an amazing artist, playing a 12 string Chapman Stick. Follow the link for more info about Tom and his music, or about the Chapman stick in general. Tom put on a fine show, moving the hammered string style of the stick with a number of live loopings a la Frippertronics – great stuff! We bought his CD afterwards
But the real joy was the CGT. I’ve been a fan of their stuff since I heard “Train from Lamy Suite” on a DGM sampler in the 90s … but I’ve missed them for one reason or another everytime they’ve been in town.
But we had great seats, and they played fantastic! Some old stuff (even “Lamy Suite”!), and some new stuff off their new Whitewater CD.
They played for 2 hours without a break, even an accoutic number, then came back for a 2 song encore including Bohemian Rhapsody with the audience doing a sing-a-long as they played.
At the end, Hideyo took pictures of the audience for the “RoadCam” part of his diary. Emma and I are center of the picture (with Mark and JD) at the table 1 row back from the front. A real fun night!