I really, really, dislike John McCain. When I saw him at Dangling Rope Marina last summer I should have told him that. I don’t care that he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, if you betray the Constitution, you are a traitor, and nothing in recent memory is more unconstitutional than McCain-Feingold. As George Will writes:

It is a constitutional obscenity that no one now knows — or, pending many more FEC and court rulings, can know — what political speech is legal in this nation where the First Amendment is no longer even pertinent to protecting such speech.

McCain hates when people speak their mind. He believe that the masses are asses and too damn dumb to think for themselves. The masses probably are asses, but so what? The masses should be allowed to speak their mind, and not within the limits the self-benighted John McCain places on them.

Free software is cool, there is no doubt about it. It definitely makes some things better for me. I’m a big fan of Winamp and Irfanview, but what is the true potential for free software? Joe Barr, writing at Newsforge think the potential for free software is to end poverty and AIDS. I’m not kidding. He writes:

That’s a real tragedy. Free software might help put an end to the Petri dish of poverty and ignorance which is the breeding ground for AIDS. But we can’t say that. It offends the sensibilities of corporate lobbyists whose moral compass points at nothing but the bottom line.

I always thought that the cure for AIDS would be a scientific breakthrough, but Barr thinks that Linux will be the world’s condom. For example, if only all the Africans with AIDS would just have put FreeBSD on their non-existent computers, then suddenly they would have realized the unprotected sex can kill you.

I’m sorry, but this is an absolutely silly argument. One of the main reasons that places like sub-Saharan Africa is such a mess is for the very reasons Barr is arguing against

I’ve been a Yankees fan since 1978, but it’s a little tough to root for the Yankees these days. They are the Goliath of baseball and what fun is it to root for Goliath? But one reason to root for the Yankees is that Derek Jeter is a class act. It will be interesting to see what unfolds in the Yankees clubhouse with Alex Rodriguez now on the team, especially since A-Rod is a better fielder than Jeter. Regardless of what happens, my bet is that Jeter will remain a class act.

As I was studying for the bar exam, I came across this the following in a practice question:

Cisneros raised his middle finger in the timeworn salute of the impotently angry…

That has to be my favorite euphemism for flipping someone the bird.

Those of us with average intelligence will always lose money to Casinos. The bright kids, however, can actually make money playing Blackjack. Here’s an interview with a guy who has done it.

Word on the street has it that my Wills, Trusts, and Estates professor, Lloyd Cohen, won a ton of money playing blackjack. The rumor is that Prof. Cohen says you can make something like 3% playing blackjack (if you can count cards).

I used to work for Congress as a Committee staffer. After attending my fair share of boring hearings, this hearing with Colin Powell would have been great to attend. The problem with most hearings is that they are completely scripted. Staffers get testimony from the witnesses before the witnesses testify, so they know exactly what is going to be said. The only interesting part is the questions and answers.

By the way, I think that Powell was completely justified in his reprimand of the staffer. Staffers should be there to help their bosses, not expressing their views.

I’m a big fan of Unreal Tournament. I was excited for Unreal Tournament 2003, but I was disappointed. For the past few months I have been playing the PC version of Halo, and I think it’s a great game. But after playing the demo for Unreal Tournament 2004, it might be my new favorite first person shooter. Check it out at unrealtournament.com.

Quite possibily Hillary Clinton has blown her chance to be President. I was thinking that a couple days ago, but Susan Estrich actually wrote it today.

What am I missing here? Boston.com is reporting that “Amtrak President David Gunn said Tuesday that President Bush’s proposal to give the railroad just over half what it sought in federal subsidies would shut it down just as more passengers than ever are taking the train.” If more people that ever are taking the train, then why not charge them enough to actually pay their own way as opposed to having the rest of us pay for them? What’s so tough about that?