June 15, 2007 – Jarrett House North

Ah, Reverend Don Wildmon. Once known for picketing TV shows and comic strips, now turning his attention to hate crime legislation. The latest American Family Association newsletter hysterically claims that new anti-hate-crime legislation in front of the House (HR 1592) and Senate (S 1105) would make it illegal to preach against homosexuality.

The actual text of the bill, in fact, says that that’s not what the bill trying to do. Section 8 says that nothing in the bill “shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment to the Constitution.” The whole bill targets violent felonies causing bodily injury that are motivated by prejudice. If the Reverend Wildmon would spend more time reading and less time picketing, he might have picked up on the distinction.

I’d love to do a joke about how Microsoft is striking back at Apple’s Safari by releasing a Mac version of their weak iPhoto clone, but (a) they released it back in April and (b) Expression Media actually looks to have some pro-grade features that might be worth checking out. Maybe.

Speaking of Microsoft, the secret to good WPF applications is design, design, design; and Vertigo Labs is pretty damned good at that. Check out their new Family.Show application. I just wish they would publish their tip list and notes about WPF and Expression Blend in a web-friendly format. I can’t read XAML docs and XPS on my Mac.

On a completely different topic, an interesting article on obsolete instruments in Salon talks about some I’m familiar with (the sackbut and the shawm) and others I’m not (the Stroh violin, which is amplified with a tin horn; the Birotron, which uses 8-track loops; and others).

And when I’m done going back to Tom Waits’s Alice and Blood Money to listen for the Stroh violin, I can apply this hint to stop iTunes from nagging me to sign into the store every time I start the application. Yay!

Speaking of things that make me happy, check out these tips for living life shown subway-sign style.

And speaking of iTunes: I’m walking a line, I’m dreaming of houses in motion. Houses that used to host the Berkman Center. Houses that will block Mass Ave for three days.

And speaking of blocking things: I think that the TSA may have lost sight of the rationale behind the war on moisture.