Vintage Computer Ads

Ken AshfordScience & TechnologyLeave a Comment

Via Neatorama, they have some pretty amusing old-timey computer ads up at Computerworld.  Two of my faves: Just for comparison’s sake, a typical cable modem today can transfer about 600,000 bps (buts per second). Comparison: today, you can get a 4 gigabyte (roughly 4,000 megabytes) flash memory card for $49.99.

Net Authority

Ken AshfordSex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

When these prisses (pictured at right) get through banning things on the Internet, there will be no Internet left: The Net Authority is an organization dedicated to the removal of offensive material from the Internet. The online world is teeming with pornography, depravity, blasphemy, and all kinds of hate propaganda. It is our mission to define a set of guidelines … Read More

Gays In The Military: A Change In The Offing?

Ken AshfordSex/Morality/Family Values, War on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

Today, the Service Members Legal Defense Network released a Pentagon statement that “includes the first language from Pentagon leaders suggesting that lesbian and gay service personnel should continue to use their skills in support of national security efforts, even after facing dismissal under the law.” The statement reads: These separated members have the opportunity to continue to serve their nation … Read More

The Best Thing About The Bush Presidency

Ken AshfordDemocratsLeave a Comment

It’s created a whole generation of progressives. According to a new poll for the New York Times, CBS News, and MTV the 17-29 year olds lean Democratic. Sixty-two percent of the 17-29 year olds support a single-payor health care system, while 47% of the general electorate does. Seventy-seven percent of them plan to register to vote for next year, and … Read More

Cheney Flip-Flops, But Still Says He’s Not Subject To Executive Order

Ken AshfordBush & Co.Leave a Comment

Dick Cheney’s office is abandoning a justification for keeping classified docouments from the auditors of the National Archives.  Cheney had tried to claim he is separate from the executive branch, but they will no longer pursue that defense, senior administration officials now say.  That original claim had been met with widespread derision from the right and the left: White House … Read More

Ann Coulter Should Be Sodomized With A Cactus

Ken AshfordRight Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

Yeah, I know that’s harsh, but the woman is vile, even by right-wing pundit standards.  Her personal attacks on people are simply the basest of the base. Yesterday on ABC’s Good Morning America, Coulter said, “[I]f I’m gonna say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot.” She has … Read More

Glenn’s Book

Ken AshfordWeb RecommendationsLeave a Comment

In November 2005, I read a post by a what-was-then-new voice in the progressive blogosphere, that of former civil rights and constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald.  The blog was called "Unclaimed Territory".  We had a few nice email exchanges at the time, initially prompted by the fact that we both went to NYU Law School in the early nineties and had … Read More

Everything I Know About Life I Learned From Nathon Tabor

Ken AshfordCrime, Right Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

Hard to believe that this guy can’t get elected to the North Carolina legislature, considering his overwhelming mastery of crime and its solutions: If schools, courthouses, and municipal buildings don’t post the command, "Thou Shalt Not Steal," it stands to reason that children would grow up believing that stealing isn’t all that bad. To Nathan, every societal problem can be … Read More

The Two Free Speech Cases

Ken AshfordConstitution, Supreme CourtLeave a Comment

This, a post by Marty Lederman, nails the inherent contradiction in the two Free Speech cases handed down yesterday by the Supreme Court: A friend writes to note the striking contrast in the way the Chief Justice views the "reasonable" interpretation of the ambiguous expression in today’s two Free Speech Clause cases: From Wisconsin Right to Life: “Because WRTL’s ads … Read More

Facebook vs. MySpace

Ken AshfordBloggingLeave a Comment

Social networking analyzed by a UC Berkeley PhD student.  Bottom line of her thesis?  While MySpace continues to be the social networking destination for kids on the fringe who may or may not have any interest in college, Facebook appears to be growing into a site filled with college-educated, "upper"-class users: Most teens who exclusively use Facebook are familiar with … Read More

The Extraconstitutional Beast

Ken AshfordBush & Co.1 Comment

Following the revelation that Cheney believes he is not part of the Executive Branch of government (and therefore not subject to rules and oversight when it comes to classified information), legislation is being sponsored in both houses of Congress whicih will cut off all funding to the Vice President — at least until he comes forward and says what branch … Read More